Expectation and Reality: The Underapplied Phenomenon

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” – Proverbs 4:23

Expectation embarks from an individual’s mind could turn out to be reality. The impact of expectation on the actual event is further called The Pygmalion effect. While managing oneself interpretation and response toward matter occurs is essential to produce the best act, managing the expectation is important as well to help create proper reality in oneself life. Therefore, knowing and understanding the Pygmalion Effect – which is relatively underapplied – could be a powerful means to positively affect oneself as well as those around him/her.

The Pygmalion Effect, which was first studied by researchers Rosenthal and Jacobson in 1964, could be briefly defined as a psychological phenomenon in which certain expectations affect performance in a given area. Moreover, the Pygmalion Effect refers to the conscious interpretations and beliefs of how reality is supposed to be, and hence, people adapt their acts, thoughts, and demeanors to fulfill expectations. The Pygmalion Effect could also be thought of as a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which the belief that something, either positive or negative, is about to happen in oneself life, will eventually occur since he/she, consciously or unconsciously, moves forward to meet the expectation. Thus, the expectations people have upon themselves as well as others could also make those expectations to be a reality.

There are several attributes of the Pygmalion Effect that should be noted. First, the Pygmalion Effect could only perform when people are physically adequate to achieve what is expected of them. Second, overly high expectations might also be stressful since people could not do anything only due to expectations from others. As a result, people could get discouraged, demotivated, and even not doing any attempts. Third, the probability and certainty to complete expectations influence whether the Pygmalion Effect could further give effect or not. For instance, research by McClelland and Atkinson shows that should people view their chances of success as being less than 50 percent, the Pygmalion Effect degrade. In other words, the Pygmalion Effect could not hold if any effort seems impossible to meet the expectations as people’s confidences are eroded.

Someone’s achievements, as well as way of thinking, behaving, and perceiving, are more or less impacted by the expectations of people around him/her, such as partners, bosses, colleagues, friends, parents, etc. One of the reasons is that people treat someone in a distinct way when they expect him/her to perform well in any capacity. Although those expectations might raise due to biased or irrational thinking, they have the power to affect an individual to some extent and further alter the occurrence.

Nevertheless, the more important thing in affecting someone’s reality with regards to expectations is the mindset. The mindset leads one to act accordingly to what he/she could do to enhance his/her current role and keep on track to achieve higher objectives and aspire in a more meaningful way.  The mechanism in which mindset turns expectation onto reality comes from the attitude that someone takes into actions often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When people think that they could not obtain something, the possible responses are either they do not make any start, or retreat immediately, or tend to self-sabotage their attempts in some other way. Conversely, when people are confident and convinced that they could afford something, they would hasten to make a start and tend to stick with what they want and do to obtain the goal even when the circumstance is getting tough. They further are able to find ways, reinforcement, and encouragement to keep moving forward consistently instead of stepping out of the process. Briefly, people’s mindsets bring impact to their performance and settle up in reality with the results they had initially expected.

In more specific examples, the first instance of the Pygmalion Effect is in the education sector. The study of Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968), shows that teacher expectations influence students’ performance. The result concludes that the only discrepancy between the high achiever students and their fellows is the belief of their teachers that they have the skills and talents to be high achievers. Rosenthal further explains that the discrepancy of achievements and performances between students caused by teachers’ expectations, which also could be applied to other sectors is mainly due to four key factors, including warmer socioemotional climate (such as warm and hospitable behavior), input (the teachers’ propensity to provide more energy and attention to their special students), output (how teachers involve their special students more often for answers) and feedback (providing regularly more helpful and supporting responses to their special students compared to the peers’ ones). In addition, the more recent example is the study of researchers for the liberal advocacy group Center for American Progress in October 2014 which suggests that 10th-grade students are more than three times more possible to graduate from college when they have teachers with higher expectations than students who have teachers with lower expectations, ceteris paribus.

The next example is in the industrial organization field. Many studies indicate that the performance and productivity of employees are positively affected by their managers’ performances and expectations. Employees become more productive should managers’ expectations are high and they have high hopes for their employees, vice versa. Gündüzalp and Özan (2019) reveal that while high expectations, in general, would result in high performance, low expectations would instead affect negatively employees’ motivation as well as unwillingness to complete the job in progress and hence result in declining performance. Moreover, it could be inferred that managers’ beliefs about themselves might also influence their beliefs upon their subordinates and their expectation of them which in turn affect their treatment of their subordinates. Furthermore, Berlew and Hall (1966) suggest that fulfilling a company’s high expectations in the critical first year of an employee’s career might internalize positive job attitudes and high standards to the employee that in turn would lead to success in the following years due to the amplification of a strong and high performance. 

The third example is coming from the macroeconomy context, for instance, consumers’ and producers’ expectation of inflation is one of the key factors of actual inflation. From the demand side, when consumers expect that prices of goods will increase in the following week due to certain day celebration e.g. Christmas Day, they will have more incentives to buy goods in the current time when prices are still lower than that they expect to become (assuming consumers are rational). The sudden shock that increases the demand for goods would in turn lead to the increase in prices of that goods due to the limited stock of supply of goods, and hence would spark actual inflation, ceteris paribus. Meanwhile, from the supply side, with the same example case as previously explained, when producers expect that the price of goods will rise in the next period of time due to higher demand of goods, they will have more incentive to pile up the stock of supply and sell it in the right time which might result in scarcity, a decline in goods supply. This scarcity and shift of goods supply would in turn lead to an increase in the price of goods, holding the assumption that producers are rational. Thus, the producers’ expectation of inflation might result in actual inflation, in reality, ceteris paribus. In addition, another example comes from the investment sector. Gennaioli et al., (2016) suggest that corporate investment plans and actual investment are well explained by the Chief Financial Officers’ expectations of earnings growth, and show a positive and high correlation between the variables.

From the three examples above, it could be highlighted that when one expects certain behaviors from people or things, he/she would treat them in a different way which further could possibly impact the behavior towards them. Someone’s beliefs about others give effect to his/her treatment toward them, which impact their beliefs about and their actions toward him/her that in turn might reinforce his/her initial beliefs. For instance, if one believes that he/she is a hard worker, then he/she would make attempts and work hard, and people would perceive that he/she is and treat him/her correspondingly.

As the Pygmalion Effect has two sides of the same coin, positive and negative impacts, hence it should be managed properly to promote the bright side and positive impact for oneself and the surroundings. First, an individual needs to examine and be mindful as well as be aware of his/her beliefs and expectations of self and others in order to create positive feedback loops, appropriate attitudes, behaviors, and points of view, and encourage movements toward the accomplishment of the main objectives and goals. Second, evolve and nurture growth and positive mindset i.e. embracing challenges and viewing obstacles and crises as opportunities to develop self-growth in many aspects. Third, discover positive traits and positive reinforcement such as discipline, commitment, developing a strong and healthy mentality, and assertiveness to be consistent to perform well in doing tasks and making attempts to accomplish the objectives.

In conclusion, it is valuable to give attention to the beliefs and expectations that one has towards those around since those expectations and beliefs about others could have an actual impact on reality.  As expectation could bring benefit to self and others, and on the other hand, it also could bring a negative effect as well, depending on how someone manages the expectations and beliefs to produce more of the benefit. Through a positive mindset and expectations, an individual is inclined to seek evidence to support his/her beliefs, and gradually, that beliefs for self and others become reality. It should be noted that an individual does not always need external encouragement to succeed, nevertheless, his/her own expectations are pivotal to affect behaviors and further the actual events. As a closure, managing expectation is in balance with managing reality.

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References
Berlew, D. and Hall, D, (1966). The Socialization of Managers: Effects of Expectations on Performance. Administrative Science Quarterly
Boardman, S. (May 21, 2015). The Pygmalion Effect: Do Expectations Shape Reality?. Huff Post
De Toda, C. (December 21, 2017). The Pygmalion Effect and the Power of Expectations. Neuron Up
Ellison, K. (October 29, 2015). Being Honest About the Pygmalion Effect. Discover Magazine
Farnam Street
Gennaioli, N., Ma, Y. and Shleifer, A. (2016). Expectations and Investment. NBER Macroeconomics Annual. 30. 379-431. 10.1086/685965.
Gündüzalp, S. and Özan, M. (2019). The Power of Expectations in School Management: Pygmalion Effect. Journal of Education and Future, issue 15, 47-62.
Leyshan, T. (August 22, 2013). The Pygmalion Effect – Expectations Can Create Your Reality. Clark Morgan
Livingstone, J. (January, 2003). Pygmalion in Management. Harvard Business Review
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https://www.shawnmaust.com/2017/08/the-pygmalion-effect-when-your-expectations-become-reality/
Oppong, T. (August 1, 2018). Pygmalion Effect: How Expectation Shape Behaviour For Better or Worse. Medium
Rosenthal, R., and Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. Urban Review, 3, 16–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02322211
Wire, B. (May 17, 2020). Pygmalion Effect Definition. Retrieved 29 August 2020 from https://boycewire.com/pygmalion-effect-definition/

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