The Pygmalion Effect

Day 157 / 365

We all know how important first impressions are. For example, think of the starting of a school year or a college semester. During the first week itself, you would develop an impression about the professors in your mind, and with time they will probably turn out to be true. Same goes for when you join a new office. On the first day itself, you have a hinge as to which of your teammates will be a pain to work with or which boss is chill. And more often than not your intuition will turn out to be true.

This is not just a coincidence or something in your head. There’s actual science behind it, and it’s explained by the Pygmalion Effect.

The Pygmalion Effect is the phenomenon where our expectations about a person will eventually affect that person’s performance.

You can understand better with this example. Suppose a teacher has two students, one of which Sam looks sincere to him at first and John not so much. Naturally, he would show slightly more interest in looking after and guiding Sam than John. With this increased attention Sam would start performing better, which would, in turn, validate the teacher’s assumption that he is sincere.

John, on the other hand, might start to feel a bit discouraged, and actually start believing that he isn’t a good enough student. Due to this, his performance would decline, validating the teacher’s assumption about him as well.

As you can tell, this would be a positive feedback loop for Sam and a negative one for John. Thus the teacher’s first impressions become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Tinnitus — The constant ringing in your ears