How to Use the Pygmalion Effect in the Workplace

The Pygmalion effect, also known as the Rosenthal effect, suggests that raised expectations can lead to heightened performance. American psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson first described this behavioral science concept in 1968. It has since fallen out of favor in educational settings but remains a relevant topic in business leadership.

The Pygmalion effect takes its name from the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a sculpture. In 1913, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote a play called Pygmalion, in which a lower-class flower girl in London learns to pass as a lady with the help of Henry Higgins, a phonetics professor with high standards.

Psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson produced studies showing that when teachers have heightened expectations of their students, students tend to perform better—a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

• Experimental design: In an experiment, the psychologists named a random group of students as having high potential. Elementary school teachers were primed to expect an “intellectual blooming” from these students before school started. Those students and a control group were given IQ tests at the beginning of the school year.
• Results: At the end of the study, test scores of the students given extra attention due to higher expectations risen in a statistically significant way. Supposedly, the students sensed the heightened expectations in the attitude of their teachers, which helped elevate their achievement. This was believed to raise student performance throughout their education, particularly with younger students.
• The Golem effect: Rosenthal and Jacobson sought to demonstrate that the opposite effect could be achieved with low expectations. In this case, educators were primed to be pessimistic about the performance of particular students. The negative expectations led to lower student achievement.

Psychologists and educational professionals have widely critiqued the original experiments of the Pygmalion effects for its design and lack of subsequent repeatability. Some of the critiques include:

• Measurement: Robert L. Thorndike, an educational psychologist, criticized the original studies for poor design, noting that the IQ tests used were unrepresentative of the general population. Thorndike purported that students' improvements were not likely due to the teachers’ high expectations.
• Changing impressions: There have also been case studies indicating that the effect of the teachers’ expectations on the group of “intellectual bloomers” in the classroom waned after a few weeks.
• Issues of power: The Pygmalion effect was designed to be a function of positive reinforcement, but some psychologists question whether positive results could be due to different factors. With managers’ expectations, it can be challenging to know whether subordinates are increasing performance due to increased ability or are concerned about negative consequences if they don’t deliver.

When a team leader or supervisor has positive expectations, it can positively affect the team’s performance. Below are some ideas for how to implement the Pygmalion effect in the workplace in a healthy way:

• Executive level: Fostering the Pygmalion effect in the workplace starts at the top. A top-level executive might instruct their subordinates to use the Pygmalion effect in building motivation for their respective teams, or it can be a philosophy that the executives embrace, hoping it will spread by example.
• One-on-ones: Sometimes, the best way to see results from the Pygmalion effect is to inform team members directly of your beliefs about their potential. This personalized expectation effect can go a long way in reinforcing the desired performance.
• Team-wide: It is also helpful to implement the Pygmalion effect across teams by making the whole team aware of the high-performance benchmarks you expect and reinforcing this by stating your belief in their ability to achieve these benchmarks.

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