The Pygmalion Effect

Greater expectations drive greater performance.

The crux of this psychological phenomenon is the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you believe something is true of yourself, eventually it will be.

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 p...

The Barnum effect is also called the Forer effect. Bertram Forer used a fake psychology test on his students then gave them supposedly individualised results a week later. He asked them to rate how well it applied to them. The students rated the accuracy of the statements at an average of 4.3...