I wanted to believe it because it sounded nice and full of hope, but let's dig some more in human psyche.
The Pygmalion effect is actually an art. It is the art of seeing the best in people. The principle on which it works is that people will tend to behave in relation to you as you see them. Look at the famous experiment of Professor Rosenthal. He formed a class of ordinary children and he communicated to the teachers that they will have to teach a class for exceptional children. The result was amazing: teachers behaved with those children as with gifted children and the results from the children were brilliant. Teachers labeling children as "geniuses" led to a learning behavior in children above average.
We tend to look at people through a filter. Filter consists of our beliefs, our principles and our experiences. If we have low and negative expectations it is likely to get exactly what we expect. It's called tagging. When we label a person or a group of people "they will feel" this and will tend to behave as in the "prophecy" in relation to us. Waiting for the people to behave in a certain way, something in your attitude towards them will change, they will feel this and will behave according to your expectations.
Golem effect
That's the positive side. The downside, as you set your expectations lower towards people, they do not feel motivated to prove something, so you'll have worse results than usual. That's Golem effect.
What is interesting is that this is not another pseudoscience crap. This type of influencing the human behavior are well documented by psychologists (you know, they noticed these things nearly 100 years ago). Well, I like also the correspondent from physics (
Double Slit Experiment - 
). These studies in psychology, sociology are so reviled, twisted on all slides that their credibility often sway.
Even though the Pygmalion effect sounds as a fantasy it's supported by all kinds of:
The effect of novelty - in the context of human performance is a tendency to have better performance when there is a new technology, not because of the actual improvement of the learning process, but in response to an increased interest in new technology.
Hawthorne effect - refers to a phenomenon where workers change (improve) an aspect of their behavior in response to changes in their environment, rather than in response to the changing nature itself. The study suggested that productivity temporarily increases due attention paid to employees (by participating in a social study) and not because of changing any aspect of their work. They feel disregarded and, of course, this increases their motivation.
source:
my own blog - http://dini.ro/2014/05/12/lectie-de-bun-simt-efectul-pygmalion/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect
https://reportajelive.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/efectul-pygmalion-o-lectie-de-viata/
picture: http://guweiz.deviantart.com/art/Sunlight-582134050
#pygmalioneffect #humanpsyche #gollemeffect #thebestinpeople #humanbehavior