Maria Mężykowska

The Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion effect, also known as the Rosenthal effect, is a psychological phenomenon. It occurs when high expectations lead to better performance. It is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy. A self-fulfilling prophecy simply means that when someone believes or expects something to occur, that thinking influences their behaviour, which later leads to its fulfillment.

The name of this effect comes from the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with one of his works – a figure of a woman. Robert Rosenthal, on the other hand, was a psychologist who, along with Lenore Jacobson, conducted an experiment that examined this problem. The result of the study was that lower expectations lead to worse performance, while higher expectations lead to better results.

To test their theory, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson conducted an experiment called “Pygmalion in the Classroom”. This research was conducted in an elementary school in California. Students were given an IQ test, but their teachers were not informed about the results. The researchers randomly selected a group of students and told the teachers that these children were expected to “bloom intellectually” that year. The names of these children were disclosed to the teachers. In the end, the children took the test again. The result was that the children for whom the teachers had set higher expectations did significantly better than the children who had not been pointed out. The difference in increases in scores was significantly more visible among the first and second-grade students. But a similar rise in scores was observed for all sixth graders, both in the experimental and control groups. This shows that higher expectations, especially for younger children, lead to better performance.

The Golem effect

This effect is the counterpart of Pygmalion and is based on similar theoretical processes. It is also a form of self-fulfilling prophecy. This phenomenon occurs when low expectations impact our behaviour, leading to poorer performance. Similar to the Pygmalion effect, its influence is mostly studied in classrooms. A paper published by Babad in 1982 studied this effect. He asked teachers to nominate students with both high and low expectations. Teachers who were prone to bias treated the lower part of the class more dogmatically in comparison to the control group and the high expectations students. 

The results of this effect can be categorized as absolute or relative. The absolute Golem effect occurs when, for example, in the workplace, some of the employees are under-qualified and do not meet the requirements. However, the relative Golem effect can be considered more harmful to a certain person. This effect occurs when all the employees in a particular team are highly qualified. Nevertheless, there will always be a group, the so-called “lower tier”, which, even if perfectly qualified, will be treated differently because they are not at the top of the group.