Pygmalion myth turns to motivation technique

What is the connection between the myth of Greek sculptor Pygmalion, “My Fair Lady” and increasing the employees’ performance? It is about one of the most effective motivation techniques, which is based on an old principle saying that forecasting an event may help it happen.

Human expectations were the cause of many a success and failure in human society. One contemporary example is the way financial markets work.

Investors who are positive that the stock of one particular company will go up buy more and more shares and others follow their lead, thinking “they must know why” and the shares quotation goes up. One bank may artificially go bankrupt, when depositors panicked by rumours withdraw their money.

The oldest artistic expression of what the Americans call “self-fulfilling prophecy” is the antic myth of Pygmalion, a Cypriot sculptor. As he was young and handsome, he was courted by lots of young women, but he was not interested in any of them, as they were too shameless.

Pygmalion was dreaming about the ideal woman so he shut himself in the house and started carving her from ivory. He created such a beautiful statue that he fell in love with her. He called her Galatea and brought her clothes and jewels and, in the end, she was brought to life by Aphrodite.

The “self-fulfilling prophecy” mechanism was researched in the ’70s by Robert Rosenthal, professor with California University, Los Angeles, who dubbed it the “Pygmalion effect.”

During a classical experiment, some pupils were picked from several schools and the teachers were told they had the highest potential. At the end of the experiment, the pupils’ IQ increased.

Rosenthal performed 100 experiments and concluded there were four factors affecting the pupils: pleasant environment (as the teacher smiled at them, nodded and kept visual contact with them), feedback (on performances, offered more frequently than to the other pupils), input (they were taught more) and output (they were offered more opportunities to display their knowledge).

The principle of “self-fulfilling prophecy” is based on the fact that people behave or adjust their behaviour depending on the way they are treated.