Skip to main content

Pygmalion Effect


I have seen many parents of my students staring at me with unconcealed scepticism when I tell them that their son or daughter is going to score very high in the final exam. “But she never opens the English textbooks,” once a mother told me with palpable vexation. “I am her textbook,” I said with my usual serene smile, “leave it to me.” The mother didn’t know what to say and she left looking rather unhappy. When the final result came, her daughter had scored 96%, one mark more than I had predicted for her.

This happened in an early period of service at my present school. Now most parents know I mean what I say and they don’t stare anymore. Most of my students score enviably high marks in the final exam. How do I do it?

I didn’t know until yesterday that my strategy had an official name in psychology: the Pygmalion Effect. You put your trust in a person’s merits, tell him that he has the potential to achieve such and such, and support him as and when required. You will get the result you want. Sure. This strategy is foolproof, I assure you from experience. I have worked wonders with this.

Original Pygmalion was a sculptor

My Penguin dictionary of psychology defines Pygmalion Effect as “the oft-observed effect in which people come to believe in ways that correspond to others’ expectations of them.” I let my students know my expectations of them. I give them all the support they require. And miracles happen. Those miracles are the Pygmalion effects.

I came across the name, Pygmalion Effect, yesterday while reading Rutger Bregman’s book which I have mentioned many times in my recent posts. Bregman puts it this way: “Beliefs we’re devoted to – whether they’re true or imagined – can … come to life, effecting very real change in the world.”

It’s not only about academic results of young students. The Pygmalion Effect can work miracles anywhere, even in politics. Mahatma Gandhi used this strategy very effectively. He trusted people’s goodness. And people became better. He worked miracles in the lives of thousands of people. He transformed them. With Pygmalion Effect.

We can create a much better world if we all start making use of this effect in our day-to-day life. This is what Bregman argues in his book.

I cannot give any guarantee about the world. All I know is that it works very well with young students. Maybe, Bregman is right. A charismatic leader like Gandhi can bring about miraculous transformations even in the political jungles of India. The leader does matter.

PS. This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon

Comments

  1. Your experience as a teacher resonated with me.

    I trained to be a teacher in an extremely challenging school in London. The school catered to a catchment area of mostly single-parent households on State benefits. Not only was I new to the country (so I didn't have time to form any pre-conceived notions about the children), I was a 'new' teacher at a sensible age of 30 (career change). As a result, I expected my class to do as well as I expected my own offspring to. We all worked hard. Had fun and ended up getting the best Year 6 results in the history of the school.

    A tiny miracle perhaps--when I look back. But it had everything to do with the fact that as their (naïve and new) teacher, I expected them to do their best and they all did.

    Beliefs are powerful tools to make and unmake societies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's a thrill in working with children and getting desired results. I can understand your joy as I read your comment. These are the real miracles. Small achievements in others' sight but huge ones for individuals concerned.

      Yes, the author mentioned also speaks about the power of religious beliefs... I didn't want to take the post so far.

      Delete
  2. Yes, when you believe in the best of people, you get the best of people.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bravo!
    A reflection of self confidence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. My professional life was quite successful.

      Delete
  4. Hari OM
    A joy to read this post! I had such a teacher of English at my high school... I am still working to please him, though he is decades gone now.
    YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always loved teaching. Even today I get along well with youngsters though I find it hard to tackle adults :)

      Delete
  5. Your students are lucky to have you for sure.
    I have never have heard about Pygmalion effect till reading your post. However now that I am equipped with the knowledge I could see some experiences on timeline of my life that are examples of the said effect, in hindsight.
    Thanks for this enlightenment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pleasure. When it comes to the job, it's a mutual relationship between the students and the teacher. I have been fortunate in this regard.

      Delete
  6. It's true when you say someone that he's good at work, he genuinely tries to be good, but when you say someone that he's worthless, he doesn't tries at all to be good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That negative part is also true. It's called Golem Effect. Our negative expectations come true.

      Delete
  7. Pygmalion effect is indeed effective. Most people however apply it half heartedly and hence do not get the full benefit. If Pygmalion is your expectations of the other person, Galatea effect is his own expectations about himself.Pygmalion influences Galatea as well to get the best outcome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for that addition to the post. Expectations do matter.

      Delete
  8. Encouragement in form of believing and coming from a teacher changes one a lot..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not only teachers, appreciation and encouragement from anyone can do a lot of good.

      Delete
  9. Nice to know bout the Pygmalion effect.
    Great to know about the responsibility you take for the success of your students.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes, I totally agree. When we say that we believe in you, I love the spark in the eyes of the person opposite us. That immediate response, I so adore and they do well when one appreciates them. Came to know a new term today, thanks to you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Goodness is contagious. That's a basic message of the book mentioned.

      Delete
  11. Sir, you definitely did work wonders with the trust you have in the potential and capabilities of one. Having a teacher like you do change a lot of things for students, it did for me. If I have ever loved a subject genuinely, the credit goes to your superpowers!! I've rarely looked forward to a lecture other than yours (honest words now that I'm out of school :)) And yes, you're right - you were the textbook for us, we never felt the need of having a material book! Positivity is, and always will be the magical trait in you. I owe you big, and I will never stop being grateful for having a teacher like you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love this from you, Kanchan. Yours was an unforgettable batch too. Many of you remain fresh in my memory. In my heart, rather.

      Delete
  12. Sir, you definitely did work wonders with the trust you have in one's potential and capabilities. I was blessed enough to once be your student and yes you're right - you were our textbook, we never felt the need of having a material one. I rarely looked forward to a lecture other than yours (honest words now that I'm out of school :)) Your appreciation and encouragement did change a lot of things for me. It is not every day that young students get teachers like you. Positivity is, and will always be your magical trait!! I owe you big, and will never stop being grateful for knowing a teacher like you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Don Bosco

Don Bosco (16 Aug 1815 - 31 Jan 1888) In Catholic parlance, which flows through my veins in spite of myself, today is the Feast of Don Bosco. My life was both made and unmade by Don Bosco institutions. Any great person can make or break people because of his followers. Religious institutions are the best examples. I’m presenting below an extract from my forthcoming book titled Autumn Shadows to celebrate the Feast of Don Bosco in my own way which is obviously very different from how it is celebrated in his institutions today. Do I feel nostalgic about the Feast? Not at all. I feel relieved. That’s why this celebration. The extract follows. Don Bosco, as Saint John Bosco was popularly known, had a remarkably good system for the education of youth.   He called it ‘preventive system’.   The educators should be ever vigilant so that wrong actions are prevented before they can be committed.   Reason, religion and loving kindness are the three pillars of that syste...

Coffee can be bitter

The dawns of my childhood were redolent of filtered black coffee. We were woken up before the birds started singing in the lush green village landscape outside home. The sun would split the darkness of the eastern sky with its splinter of white radiance much after we children had our filtered coffee with a small lump of jaggery. Take a bite of the jaggery and then a sip of the coffee. Coffee was a ritual in our home back then. Perhaps our parents believed it would jolt our neurons awake and help us absorb our lessons before we set out on the 4-kilometre walk to school after all the morning rituals at home. After high school, when I left home for further studies at a distant place, the ritual of the morning coffee stopped. It resumed a whole decade later when I completed my graduation and took up a teaching job in Shillong. But I had lost my taste for filtered coffee by then; tea took its place. Plain tea without milk – what is known as red tea in most parts of India. Coffee ret...

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...

Relatives and Antidepressants

One of the scenes that remain indelibly etched in my memory is from a novel of Malayalam writer O V Vijayan. Father and little son are on a walk. Father tells son, “Walk carefully, son, otherwise you may fall down.” Son: “What will happen if I fall?” Father: "Relatives will laugh.” I seldom feel comfortable with my relatives. In fact, I don’t feel comfortable in any society, but relatives make it more uneasy. The reason, as I’ve understood, is that your relatives are the last people to see any goodness in you. On the other hand, they are the first ones to discover all your faults. Whenever certain relatives visit, my knees buckle and the blood pressure shoots up. I behave quite awkwardly. They often describe my behaviour as arising from my ego, which used to be a oversized in yesteryear. I had a few such visitors the other day. The problem was particularly compounded by their informing me that they would be arriving by about 3.30 pm and actually reaching at about 7.30 pm. ...