The Pygmalion Effect

The Science behind Expectations!

Have you ever felt burdened by your parents because they expect a lot from you? Don't worry, this is because of the Pygmalion Effect which will lead you to do great in life; the same way a few students outperform when a teacher has great beliefs & expectations from those students as shown in the Rosenthal experiment.

What is the Rosenthal experiment?

Rosenthal did a research in an elementary school.
At the beginning of the school year, a group of teachers were told that some of their new students had extraordinary talent and potential. This information which was completely made up was given about random average students in each class & all students had done the IQ test in advance.
By the end of the year, the students that were described as more talented had significantly increased their performance in the IQ tests compared to the rest of the class.

But how did this happen?

The Pygmalion effect (also known as the Rosenthal experiment) is a psychological phenomenon wherein higher expectations lead to better performance.

"When we expect certain behaviors of others, we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to occur". The main idea behind the Pygmalion effect is that increasing the leader's expectation of the follower's performance will result in better follower performance.

While the Pygmalion Effect is certainly true, it does not mean that you can just expect whatever you want from someone else.

Too high expectations can become burdening & overwhelming for any person, and might even result in the opposite of the desired outcome.

A lot of times we tend to feel a certain burden when we are forced to perform under high expectations but we can always overcome this pressure by remembering what the Pygmalion Effect is and using it to improve our performance!

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