The Pygmalion effect: What happens when your environment trusts you?

The girl walked slowly toward her desk, as if each step echoed in an endless hallway. She held the same worn notebook to her chest, an object that seemed as dull and silent as she was. No one expected anything from that shadow. She had never excelled in exams, never raised her hand to speak. To her classmates, she was a ghost, and to the teachers, a forgettable face in the crowd.

But that year something began to change.

At first, it was imperceptible. A correct answer on an exercise, a flash of insight in the silence... small signs that no one wanted to see. Until, suddenly, without anyone being able to explain it, the girl became the brightest student in the class.

The astonishment was universal. Her classmates looked at her with distrust, the teachers with disbelief. All, except one person: the new teacher. She had known it from the first day. She knew it when she looked directly into her eyes, as if she could see inside her, and whispered a phrase that sounded more like a sentence than a promise:

-You can do it. I'm sure you'll achieve great things. You have the ability to do it… we'll work together to achieve it.

It wasn't magic. There were no hidden rituals or secret formulas. It was something more disturbing and powerful: expectations.

From then on, the transformation was inevitable. The girl went from invisibility to becoming the star student, as if her fate had been sealed from that moment on.

The question, however, continues to throb like a threat in the darkness:

What happens when what others expect of us not only guides us… but shapes us into something we never imagined ourselves to be?

The Pygmalion effect: When expectations become destiny

The Pygmalion effect is one of the most fascinating and at the same time disturbing psychological phenomena: it demonstrates how one person's expectations can influence another's performance, becoming a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

The concept takes its name from Pygmalion, a Cypriot sculptor chronicled by Ovid in Metamorphoses . Pygmalion was an artist obsessed with feminine perfection, but disillusioned by what he saw as the flaws of real women. One day, he carved Galatea out of ivory, a statue so beautiful that he fell madly in love with her.

What seemed impossible happened: Aphrodite, moved by the sculptor's passion, brought the statue to life. Pygmalion was able to see in reality what he had projected in his mind and expectations.

The metaphor is clear and powerful: what we believe and project onto others can, in some way, become reality. This myth inspired modern psychology to name a phenomenon that transforms the intangible, beliefs and perceptions, into something very real: behavior and results .

In 1968, psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson conducted one of the most influential studies in educational psychology. They wanted to test whether teacher expectations could have a real and measurable impact on student performance.

The design was as simple as it was brilliant and disturbing:

• An intelligence test was administered to a group of elementary school students in California.

• They later informed the teachers that a percentage of those students (about 20%) had shown results indicating “exceptional intellectual potential.”

• What the teachers didn't know was that these students had been selected at random. There was no difference in their actual abilities compared to their classmates.

The results were astonishing. At the end of the course, the students identified as "potential talents" showed significant improvements in their grades and cognitive scores.

Why? Because the teachers, without realizing it, treated them differently:

• They offered them more attention and positive feedback.

• They were given more opportunities to participate in class.

• They had more patience with their mistakes.

• They projected confidence in their abilities.

That change in treatment, motivated solely by the belief that they were more capable, ended up shaping reality. Expectations created the outcome.

Rosenthal and Jacobson's experiment became a landmark: it demonstrated that environmental expectations can be as powerful as talent itself. Since then, multiple studies have replicated and expanded their findings in fields as diverse as education, business leadership, clinical psychology, and even athletic performance.

Real cases and applications

The Pygmalion effect didn't end in California classrooms in the 1960s. Since then, it has been confirmed in different areas of real life, demonstrating that expectations can drive or limit a person's destiny.

Education: the classroom as an invisible laboratory

The school environment remains the most studied setting. Teachers who believe in their students' potential tend to reinforce their achievements, give them more opportunities to speak up, and address their mistakes with constructive patience.

• Real-life example: In a later study by Brophy (1983), it was found that mathematics teachers spent more time explaining and answering questions with students they considered "capable," and much less time with those they judged to be "weak." The result: an achievement gap that stemmed not from initial ability, but from differential treatment.

• The disturbing thing: A child labeled “bright” can be molded toward excellence… while another, seen as “clumsy,” can remain trapped in that label.

Business and leadership: bosses who make you grow… or who extinguish you

In work environments, a leader's expectations can catapult a team to success or plunge it into mediocrity.

• Corporate example: Management studies have shown that supervisors who trust their employees' abilities tend to assign them more challenging projects , offer more constructive feedback, and create a motivating climate. In contrast, when a boss believes an employee "isn't up to par," he or she tends to limit their tasks to the basics, with no opportunities for growth.

• The consequence: the former shine, the latter stagnate. Not because they're less capable, but because their boss's expectations predestined them .

Medicine and health: expectation as part of treatment

Pygmalion also appears in the doctor-patient relationship. The way a doctor conveys trust can influence treatment adherence and recovery.

• Clinical example: Research in health psychology indicates that patients who are given a hopeful prognosis show greater motivation and better clinical outcomes .

• The opposite also occurs: a doctor who conveys doubt, coldness, or pessimism can erode patient confidence, even affecting the effectiveness of treatment.

Here Pygmalion meets the placebo effect: not only the drug matters, but also the expectation of improvement.

Society and culture: stereotypes that shape destinies

Beyond classrooms, offices, and hospitals, Pygmalion is projected into the entire society. Stigmas and stereotypes function as collective expectations that shape the lives of millions of people.

• Social example: When certain groups (by gender, ethnicity, social class) are expected to perform less well academically or at work, these expectations become invisible barriers that limit their real opportunities.

• Cultural example: The media discourse that repeats that “young people don’t read,” “women aren’t good at science,” or “older people don’t understand technology” ends up reinforcing those same patterns in reality.

Politics and social leadership: when etiquette becomes power

Pygmalion is also visible in the political arena. Leaders who convince their followers that they are "a people destined for great achievements" can mobilize enormous social forces, even beyond logic.

• Historical example: Political leaders who instilled in their nations the conviction that they were superior or invincible achieved social cohesion and discipline… although in many cases these expectations led to collective tragedies.

• The paradox: the same tool that can inspire progress can be used as a weapon of mass manipulation.

Conclusions of the phenomenon

The Pygmalion Effect is more than a psychological curiosity: it's an invisible force that can transform realities . Its essence is simple but devastating in its consequences: what others expect of us has the power to shape who we truly are .

1. Expectations work like a distorting mirror

We don't see people as they are, but as we believe they are. This perception is projected in our gestures, words, and attitudes, and others end up responding to that vision.

• If we believe someone is brilliant, we will give them more opportunities and trust, and that person will likely end up shining.

• If we assume that someone is “not up to it,” we will treat them with indifference or condescension, limiting their growth and reinforcing our own initial belief.

2. Confidence fuels growth, doubt stifles it

Rosenthal and Jacobson's study demonstrated this in the classroom, but the lesson transcends any context: the trust others place in us acts as an invisible fertilizer. When we are seen as capable, we unleash resources we may not have known we had. When we are labeled as incompetent, we stop trying.

3. The effect can be positive or negative

• Positive Pygmalion : expectations that drive someone to excel. A boss who trusts his team, a teacher who believes in his students, a parent who motivates his child.

• Negative Pygmalion : expectations that crush. Teachers who give up on certain students, bosses who don't offer promotion opportunities, societies that repeatedly insist that certain groups "can't do it."

In both cases, expectation functions as a silent script that the protagonists end up interpreting.

4. No one is left out

Although we tend to think of Pygmalion as something that affects others, the truth is that we are all susceptible to falling under his influence:

• As receivers, burdened with other people's expectations that shape us.

• As transmitters, passing judgment on others that influence their paths.

The key is to recognize it: only by doing so can we break the cycle.

Final reflection: Pygmalion's shadow over society

The Pygmalion Effect is a disturbing reminder of how much our lives are shaped by the gaze of others. Like a whisper in the darkness, expectations act silently, unseen, until one day we discover that we are no longer who we wanted to be... but who others imagined we would be.

In the classroom, it decides who becomes the brightest child and who is relegated to the forgotten corner. In business, it dictates who rises and who remains anchored to the same desk for years. In medicine, it can mean the difference between a patient who fights with hope and one who gives up before they even begin.

But the most disturbing thing happens in society itself. We live in a world that hands out labels like sentences:

• “Young people are lazy”
• “Women are useless in science”
• “The poor will never escape their situation”

And these phrases, repeated ad nauseam, don't just describe reality: they fabricate it. It's the perfect trap: believing something is inevitable... and, by the simple fact of believing it, making it inevitable.

The thriller is ready: a self-fulfilling prophecy that requires no conspiracies or secret plans. Mediocre expectations, assumed prejudices, and gazes that judge before listening are enough. And so, every day, millions of destinies are written without ink, only with other people's convictions.

The most damaging thing of all is that society rewards these labels. The more we repeat a stereotype, the easier it becomes to confirm it. And so we perpetuate the cycle: ignorance disguised as certainty, mediocrity becoming the norm, as we explained in the article on the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The question, then, is as uncomfortable as it is inevitable:

Are we masters of our destiny, or mere puppets of the expectations others place on us?

References

Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils' Intellectual Development. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Brophy, J. E. (1983). Research on the self-fulfilling prophecy and teacher expectations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75(5), 631–661. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.75.5.631

Madon, S., Jussim, L., & Eccles, J. (1997). In search of the powerful self-fulfilling prophecy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(4), 791–809. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.4.791