The Pygmalion Effect: Proving Them Right

Many people have stories of achieving something great because someone had high expectations of them. The concept of the Pygmalion Effect is that expectations will influence performance and become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The term "Pygmalion effect" comes from studies done in the 1960s on the effect of teacher's expectations on students' IQ. If teachers had high expectations, would pupils live up to them? Although the conclusion was that the effects were negligible, the idea is widespread.

The Pygmalion effect suggests that other people's expectations can influence how we think, how we act, how we view our capabilities, and what we achieve.

In Pygmalion in Management, J. Sterling Livingston writes that managers have the ability to lower or increase the performance of their subordinates by how they treat them. If their expectations are low, productivity is likely to suffer. If managers expectations are high, productivity is likely to be excellent.