The Pygmalion effect is the the psychological phenomenon in which placing positive expectations on a person leads to an increase in their performance. In this blog post, I take an in-depth look at the Pygmalion effect in education.

One’s expectations about a person can eventually lead that person to behave and achieve in ways that confirm those expectations.

-Dr. Robert T. Tauber in Good or Bad, What Teachers Expect from Students They Generally Get

Today I want to share an amazing story about an experience I had while tutoring algebra for summer school. I met a student who taught me a lot more than what I could’ve possibly taught him. Let’s call him Joey. 

Right off the bat Joey's positive attitude impressed me. While he struggled with the math at first, his enthusiasm and perseverance never changed. I quickly saw him as a star pupil. 

Joey shared with me one day that his mother died when he was young. Neither of his parents finished high school, and his mom's dream had been to see him graduate. His dad was a plumber who worked long hours for little pay. Joey said he wanted to get his diploma so that he could get a better job because he hated seeing his dad so unhappy.

From that day forward, I committed myself to ensuring he would pass. I taught him how to understand some of the most challenging topics in algebra such as matrices, logarithms, and exponential functions. 

On the last day of the class, Joey passed the final test, and thus passed the class. After all the students left that day, I stayed after to help clean up. The head teacher in charge told me he was amazed at how Joey performed on the test in spite of his disabilities. 

What disabilities? I thought to myself in disbelief.

The teacher went on to explain that Joey was diagnosed with learning disabilities, and that the “experts” said he would never be able to do math. I was shocked to hear this, because I literally had no idea about this the whole time I worked with him!

If he had learning disabilities, then how was he able to solve problems involving difficult algebra concepts with ease after some lessons? In fact, I actually thought he picked these topics up faster than some of the other students.

I'll admit that this question has puzzled me for some time. The best explanation I've found after countless hours searching for one is the concept of the Pygmalion effect.

Before we jump into the Pygmalion effect, it's important to first understand the origins. The Pygmalion effect is named after the ancient myth of Pygmalion. Let this story prime the pump so to speak for what's coming ahead...

Many are at least somewhat familiar with this concept. But few are also familiar with the concept of teacher-fulfilling prophecies. The premise of the teacher-fulling prophecy is that teachers’ expectations have a major impact on their students, either positively or negatively.

The idea is that teachers perceive potential differently for each student, and form expectations based on their perceptions. These exceptions lead to differential treatment, which drives the student to behave differently to fulfill the teachers' expectations. When the teacher observes the behavior, it confirms and strengthens their expectations. 

As I said, a teacher-fulling prophecy can be either positive and negative. When positive expectations lead to positive results, we call it the Pygmalion Effect. On the other hand,  when negative expectations lead to negative results, we call it the Golem Effect.

 The researchers gave students from kindergarten through fifth grade a standard intelligence test, but did not disclose the real results to the teachers. They randomly labeled about 5 students from each class as academic “spurters,” and said they were expected to outperform the other students. They then explicitly told the teachers who the so-called spurters were.

What we ‘see’ is a product of what we believe to be ‘out there.’ We see things not as ‘they’ are, but as we are. The case of the elementary-school children is quite similar [to a different experiment], but with an additional dimension.

The teachers ‘perceived’ these children as intelligent because they were expecting to see ‘intelligent behavior.’ The teachers … ‘made’ the reality that was ‘there.’ But we can assume that once the teachers ‘made’ that reality, the children began to ‘make’ one of their own. The children modified their behavior in accordance with the positive expectations of their teachers.

-Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner in Teaching As a Subversive Activity.

Studies show that some of the strongest impressions teachers form are based on physical appearance, I. Q. scores, characteristics of parents, characteristics of older siblings, and students’ general conduct and behaviors. 

 If you have any doubts that teachers form impressions this way, try to put yourself into the shoes of a teacher and try this exercise! I’ve based it on an actual exercise Tauber used to educate teachers on the Pygmalion effect:

Exercise:

Try to read the descriptions of the students from the perspective of a teacher. Observe the first thoughts that come to mind in response. 

1. A teenager whose parents are very active and vocal members of the Democratic Party.

2. A teenager whose parents are very active and vocal members of the Republican Party.

3. A middle school student whose older siblings were frequent troublemakers in a class you had a few years ago.

4. An elementary school student who is an only child.

You probably found it was difficult to completely avoid forming expectations even if you tried your best to resist them. Don't worry. This is completely normal!

In fact, it would be abnormal if you didn't form any kind of expectations. Why? Because forming these kinds of judgement are part of human nature.

I'm sure we can all agree that purposely treating others differently based on superficial characteristics is wrong. But rather than just saying it's wrong to judge people and leaving it at that, let's be honest about the fact that we all do it unintentionally sometimes.

Yes—you're right that it shouldn't be this way. But unfortunately, that's just not how the human brain works...

I believe that we can only start to look at things more objectively and fairly after we've come to terms with the simple fact that we all have our biases. It takes awareness and honesty to understand that our initial impressions can sometimes (if not much of the time) be wrong. 

Next, let's examine how a teacher’s differential expectation-based behavior can drive the student to act in-line with expectations.

The best explanation for this is to consider how the teacher’s behavior impacts the child’s self-concept. In Teacher Expectation: Sociopsychological Dynamics, University of Calgary researcher Carl Braun said the following:

It is safe to make the generalization that for many primary school children, the teacher’s credibility rating is high. She is the person who ‘knows.’ If she communicates to the child continuously that his performance is poor, this will undoubtedly influence his self-concept and the goals he strives to achieve.

I agree 100% with Braun here. The teacher is in a position of authority relative to the young children. As a result, their evaluation is often critical to the self-concepts. Former University of Illinois, Urbana professor Louis Rubin said something very similar in Facts & feelings in the classroom:

The position taken here is that there is a close relationship between the teacher’s expectations for the learner, the teacher’s treatment (output) of the learner, and, ultimately, the child’s self-expectation. This expectation of self is inseparable from his self-image.

I'm far from an expert in psychology. But as I see it, the children aren't old enough yet to question the messages they're getting about themselves. Like Braun said, the teacher is the person who knows. 

​Whatever he or she says will be accepted by the child as true essentially without question. The messages become part of their self-concept. The child then acts however they believe they're supposed to act. 

Elliott divided the students into two groups: blue eyed students and brown eyed. She told her students that the blue-eyed children were superior to the brown eyed children. 

The blue-eyed kids got to eat first at lunch, and enjoyed a longer recess. Meanwhile, brown-eyed kids, were forced to wear collars around their necks. The brown-eyed kids were scolded verbally to make them feel inferior, in addition to the collars.

The next day, Elliot had the groups completely switch roles. The brown-eyed group enjoyed the special privileges. In contrast, the blue-eyed students had to wear collars, and were made to feel inferior.

Elliot was shocked by the results of her experiment. On the first day, the blue-eyed children adopted the behaviors of “superiors.” Even model students became hostile towards the brown-eyed group.

The brown-eyed students who were treated as inferiors literally adopted the behaviors of “inferiors;” they carried themselves as if they were defeated, and performed terribly on their school work.

On the second day, the same behavior patterns were present. The only difference was that the groups switched roles. Read this chilling quote on Jane Elliott’s experiment by William Peters in A Class Divided: Then and Now:

I have asked each class that has gone through this exercise why they believed me when I said that one group or the other was inferior. the answer has always been the same. They believed me because I was the teacher.

Here's another relevant quote by Braun:

If the learner thinks of himself as inferior, his actions will tend to be those of an inferior person and will confirm to his teacher and peers that reasonableness of tearing him as inferior.

We're all mentors to some degree. You might be a teacher, tutor, coach, parent, older sibling, or in some other kind of leadership position. It doesn't matter. Enough cannot be said about how valuable knowledge the Pygmalion effect is.

Set high expectations for others. And also, set high expectations for yourself!

Even if you've had a horrendous experience in education in the past, you don't have to let it impact your future. No matter what's happened before, today is a new day. Never forget what you've learned, and never stop going after your goals!

Thanks for reading!