Those who still remember the lessons of the Russian language and the codes of practice may think that Rosenthal effect has something to do with grammar or punctuation. However, in fact, this phenomenon is not at all about the rules of the language and is named after the psychologist Robert Rosenthal, who conducted the experiment and proved this phenomenon. The psychologist himself called him Pygmalion effect. We will analyze what this phenomenon is and how to use it in practice.

What is the Pygmalion effect or the Rosenthal effect?

The meaning of the Rosenthal effect can be expressed as follows: if a person believes in some prediction he has received, then, without realizing it, he begins to behave in such a way that as a result of his decisions and actions lead to the fulfillment of this prophecy. In other words, the person himself does everything to make the prediction come true, but does not see it on a conscious level, and it seems to him that the prediction came true because the stars converged in this way, the cards were formed, [insert as appropriate].

Pygmalion effect - example self-fulfilling prophecy. Such a prophecy is initially an attitude that does not correspond to the truth, which, due to a change in behavior, way of thinking and personality assessment system, and also because of the expectations of others, becomes true. At the same time, we repeat, on a conscious level, a person may not be aware of changes in himself, his behavior, the system of assessments, so it seems to a person that such a prophecy has come true on its own.

Let's take a practical example. Suppose a fortune teller told you that you will soon meet your soul mate. In anticipation, you begin to dress better, attend various events, be nicer and more sociable with representatives of the opposite for now - after all, your fateful meeting is very close! As a result, you really get to know a nice person, and he becomes your soulmate. The prophecy has come true! But it was your behavior that led to this, which changed due to the fact that you believed in a prediction.

The Rosenthal effect in practice

The Pygmalion effect works not only in the case of fortune tellers and psychics. Many examples can be found in everyday life. Let's say you want to ask management for a pay rise, but deep down you are 99.99% sure that this will not happen. For a week or two, you've been gathering your thoughts to go and talk to your boss. And while you procrastinated, you didn’t work very efficiently - after all, you were sure that you wouldn’t get a pay raise: this spoils your mood and demotivates. You have finally made your wish known. But what? You didn't get a pay rise! Did the doomed tone in which you made the request play a role, or did your inefficient work lately play a role? It doesn’t matter to you, because you will only think about one thing: you knew in advance that you weren’t getting a raise, and you really didn’t get it.

Similar examples can be cited in many areas, from work to
personal life. It is important to remember here that The Pygmalion effect works on both negative and positive events.. Including on this effect, the action of affirmations is built. Your inner conviction that you will achieve what you want and achieve your goal determines your behavior, assessment of the situation and the decisions you make. Therefore, pay attention to the rules for compiling affirmations - this is a chance to change your life in the direction you want.

Also, do not listen to any negative predictions and forecasts - believe only in the good. This applies not only to unsolicited predictions from street fortune-tellers, but also “friendly” advice in the spirit: “Don’t date him / her, people of this zodiac sign are constantly cheating”, “Don’t work in this area - everyone is deceivers there.” Distinguish between good recommendations based on knowledge and personal experience, from such "prophecies".

All psychological sciences are truly something extraordinary. Thanks to them, it is really possible to explain things that ordinary person seem like a fantasy. Even in ancient times, people noticed the fact that their mind is sometimes able to give out the most amazing visions, produce knowledge and information that changes almost everything. At the same time, psychology for people of that time was a way to control their own kind. Now the tasks are less prosaic. People comprehend this science in order to help others later. However, psychology still remained a truly amazing phenomenon. Even after centuries, it is able to explain many incredible things.

Do prophecies come true?

What is a prophecy? This is a certain prediction of the future, which may vary, depending on the degree of specification of the facts in it. The more specific the future is told, the better the prophecy is considered. Most of the population believes in such things, but no one thought that we ourselves are the real source of any future events. In psychology, there is such a thing as the Pygmalion effect. According to this scientific term, it does not matter at all who predicts the future, and how he does it. In this case, the status of a magician or sorcerer is not important. Prophecies come true, but not because it is destined by fate, but because the person himself expects it.

Pygmalion effect - reality or fiction?

Before talking about the Pygmalion effect, you should plunge into the depths of history in order to better imagine what in question. Pygmalion himself is the hero of an ancient Greek legend. According to the myth, he was a sculptor. Pygmalion was a real master of his craft and therefore created such a charming sculpture that he himself fell in love with it. Pygmalion believed in the "reality" of the sculpture so much that he convinced the gods to bring it to life. This story was then repeatedly reflected in the works of literature.

Now let's go back to the present and try to understand what the Pygmalion effect is in psychology. . Previously, the fact that this psychological concept determines the process of internal identification of the surrounding world, in which a person is the source of expected events, was indicated. Thus, we can conclude that the Pygmalion effect is a person's expectation of a prophecy that comes true because of a person's behavior, in other words, a person creates the expected result for himself. This psychological category was discovered by the famous American doctor and psychologist Rosenthal in 1966. After this discovery, the term is called the "Rosenthal effect".

The essence of the term

At its core, the concept does not carry anything complicated and transcendental. The Pygmalion effect is fairly easy to explain and even easier to test. This term causes a very real process of waiting, in which a person creates his own future. At the same time, the theory of the effect is based not on the paranormal forces of foresight, but on the real power of expectation. When a person believes in something and knows that it will happen, then he, by virtue of his behavioral signs, will determine the expected result. It does not matter at all whether the prediction is true or false. It's all about convincing the person who is waiting for this very event.

Examples of the Rosenthal effect

To date, there are many examples of this effect. Since its discovery, the Rosenthal effect has gathered a lot of adherents. The problem is that it really works! For example, statistics show that in most cases, experiments to test some paranormal phenomena end up with a positive result for parapsychologists, and not for those who are trying to refute them. There are other examples of experiments to test the Rosenthal effect. One of them is the most famous.

Rosenthal experiment

"Children of Rosenthal" is one of the experiments carried out by Rosenthal to confirm his theory regarding the Pygmalion effect. Its essence was as follows: Rosenthal conducted an analysis of the mental abilities of students in one of the schools in San Francisco.
During the experiment, children were found with outstanding mental faculties. Rosenthal told their teachers that in the future these children would show miracles of intellectual development, but in this moment they have not fully revealed themselves yet. Such a statement was very bold, since all the selected children did not show any results in their studies at all. From the point of view of science, they were at the level of the average student, "good". However, by the end of the year, all of these children showed unimaginable IQ results.

It would seem that the experiment is not any special. The psychologist did an excellent job with his work, if not for one "but"! All children who received high results IQ at the end of the year, at the very beginning of the experiment were selected at random. There was absolutely no criteria or selection system. Rosenthal noted the first students he came across. In this case, the essence of the Rosenthal effect was that the expectation that the teachers had in relation to these students was somehow transferred to them. By their actions, the teachers consciously pulled their "geniuses" to the top of science, and, most importantly, they succeeded.

The experiment not only proved Rosenthal right, but it also showed everyone the power of persuasion. After all, the world and man are one indivisible whole. With their thoughts, people create actions for themselves, and with their actions they build the whole world around them. In this case, the Pygmalion effect is a special ratio of thoughts and actions, in which a person interprets the world around him according to a previously known result.

Outcome

In general, the Rosenthal effect explains many. The theory is quite serious and controversial, but the fact of its effectiveness has been proven by many years of practice and real examples. So far, not a single known experiment, the purpose of which was to prove the reality of the effect, has failed.

» Pygmalion Effect

Personnel Management
Dictionary-reference

Pygmalion effect

According to ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion was a sculptor, the king of Cyprus, who, according to legend, sculpted a sculpture so beautiful that he himself fell in love with it and begged the gods to revive it. The American psychologist Rosenthal (1966) called Pygmalion effect a phenomenon consisting in the fact that a person who is firmly convinced of the correctness of some information involuntarily acts in such a way that it receives actual confirmation.

The existence of the Pygmalion effect (the psychological phenomenon of justified expectations) was first proven in the classroom. In an experiment that later became a classic, teachers were told that among their students there were children who were very capable and who were not very capable. In reality, there was no difference between the two groups, and the level of ability of all students was about the same. However, teachers' expectations related to students turned out to be different. As a result, a group of supposedly more able students scored higher anonymously than a group of "less" able students. The expectations of the teachers were somehow transferred to the students and influenced their actual academic success.

In the practice of personnel work, the Pygmalion effect is manifested in the fact that the expectations of managers regarding the results of the work of subordinates can influence these results themselves. Thus, there is a tendency in accordance with which managers, highly estimating their subordinates and expecting good results from them, get better results. And the leaders who consider their subordinates to be a bunch of lazy people and slow-witted people, i.e. initially configured for bad results, they get exactly them.

The fact that the expectations associated with the actions of the staff tend to come true has been proven by many researchers. This phenomenon is more pronounced in men's teams (in particular, in the army) than in women's, and is extremely characteristic of those workers with whom not only management does not associate any expectations, but who themselves have given up on themselves. The performance of their work usually corresponds to negative expectations.

The Rosenthal effect or the Pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon, which consists in the fact that a person's expectations of the realization of the prophecy largely determine the nature of his actions and the interpretation of the reactions of others, which provokes the self-fulfillment of the prophecy. It can manifest itself at any stage of research and in any science: both during the procedure of the experiment, and when processing the results, and when interpreting the results of the study, etc.

Experiment with sympathy

For example, a self-fulfilling prophecy can lead to sympathy. Rebecca Curtis and Kim Miller illustrated this process and performed the following experiment. A group of college students, none of whom knew each other, were divided into pairs. One person in each pair, chosen at random, received special information. Some students in a couple were told that their partner liked them, and some that they did not.

The pairs of students were then given the opportunity to meet and talk to each other. As predicted by the researchers, those students who thought they liked their partner behaved more pleasantly towards their partner; they were more frank, expressed less disagreement on the topics discussed, and, in general, their manner of communication was more cordial and pleasant than that of students who believed that they did not like their partner. Moreover, those who believed that the partner liked them really liked him much more than those who believed that the partner had antipathy for them. That is, partners showed a tendency to copy the behavior of another person in a pair.

placebo

Placebo (from Latin placebo, literally - "I will like") - a substance without obvious medicinal properties, used as a medicine, the therapeutic effect of which is associated with the patient's belief in the effectiveness of the drug. Sometimes a placebo capsule or tablet is called a dummy. Lactose is often used as a placebo substance.

In addition, the term placebo effect refers to the very phenomenon of improving the health of a person due to the fact that he believes in the effectiveness of some effect, in fact, neutral. In addition to taking the drug, such an effect may be, for example, the performance of certain procedures or exercises, the direct effect of which is not observed. The degree of manifestation of the placebo effect depends on the suggestibility of the person and the external circumstances of the "treatment" - for example, on appearance placebo, its price and the total difficulty of obtaining a "medicine" (this increases confidence in its effectiveness due to the reluctance to consider efforts and money spent in vain), the degree of trust in the doctor, the authority of the clinic.

Effect mechanism

The placebo effect is based on therapeutic suggestion. This suggestion does not require any special skills, since the criticality of consciousness (“I don’t believe”) is overcome by linking the suggested information to the actual object, usually a pill or injection, without any real effect on the body. The patient is told that this drug has a certain effect on the body, and despite the ineffectiveness of the drug, the expected effect manifests itself to one degree or another. Physiologically, this is due to the fact that, as a result of suggestion, the patient's brain begins to produce substances corresponding to this action, in particular, endorphins, which, in fact, partially replace the effect of the drug. The second factor that ensures the effectiveness of placebo is an increase in general immunity, the "protective forces" of a person.

The degree of manifestation of the placebo effect depends on the level of suggestibility of a person and the physiological possibility of the formation of the necessary chemical compounds.

Placebo in pharmacotherapy

Sometimes doctors deliberately prescribe a placebo to patients who are prone to self-hypnosis of painful sensations. In this case, it becomes possible to avoid unjustified pharmacotherapy, typical for suggestible people in modern society, and numerous drug complications. The positive effect of homeopathic remedies is also explained by the placebo effect.

Homeopathy is a type of alternative medicine that involves the use of highly diluted drugs that are supposed to cause symptoms in healthy people similar to those of the patient's illness. The concept of treatment according to the pseudoscientific principle "like like" Thus, the probability that 1 mol of dilution of 13C contains at least one molecule of the original substance is 1%, for 14C 0.01%, etc. Dilutions with an index of 40С approximately correspond to 1 molecule for the entire observable Universe, and those with an index of 200С (Anaferon, Oscillococcinum) correspond to 1 molecule per 10,320 Universes, respectively. In practice, it can be considered that dilutions with a "homeopathic index" of 12C and higher cannot have any physical effect, however, some homeopaths believe that the effect of the drug is even enhanced at high dilutions, explaining this by the fact that water has a memory that transfers biological information.

psychological syndrome placebo anchor

Placebo in evidence-based medicine

At the same time, many modern drugs act integrally, so their therapeutic effect also contains a "placebo component". Therefore, bright and large tablets generally act more strongly than small and nondescript ones, and drugs from well-known companies (and the same composition, and the same bioequivalence) give a greater effect than drugs from "market outsiders", etc.

placebo in pharmacology

It is used as a control drug in clinical trials of new drugs, in the procedure quantification drug effectiveness. One group of subjects is given a test drug tested in animals (see preclinical trials), and the other is given a placebo. The effect of the use of the drug must significantly exceed the effect of the placebo in order for the drug to be considered effective.

Placebo is also used to study the role of suggestion in the action of drugs.

The typical level of positive placebo effect in placebo-controlled clinical trials averages 5-10%, while its severity depends on the type of disease.

Placebo in psychiatry

The placebo effect is widely used in psychiatry. The first reason for this is that the human brain, through self-hypnosis, more easily corrects its own work than the work of other organs. Therefore, placebo is especially effective in mental disorders. The second reason is that for many mental disorders - such as insomnia, depression, nightmares - effective drugs have not yet been found, or these drugs are effective only for a small proportion of patients.

Placebo in addiction

Placebo is widely used in Russian narcology for the treatment of people addicted to alcohol and drugs. Russian narcologist, treats alcohol addiction using such methods as "Capsule", "Torpedo", "Coding", "Filing", "MST", "SIT", "NIT" or non-existent (and not included in the State Register of Medicinal Products). means) drugs such as: "Vitamerz Depot", "Actoplex", "Disulfizon", "Algominal" - exploits the so-called "placebo effect", that is, the patient's faith and his desire to recover. The mechanism of action is that the doctor convincingly tells his patient: "If you drink, you will die." These methods use people's "ignorance" and their "faith" to maintain the fear that makes people abstain from drinking alcohol.

To create fear, doctors use a variety of methods. Before the filing or coding procedure, the patient signs a legal document. The doctor offers the patient a contract that determines the time of "filing" and in which it is written that the patient bears all responsibility for the consequences of the breakdown. The document also provides for the possibility of "detaching" (usually a single dose of a substance that stops the action of the implant), which is performed by the same specialist. Faith in the "file" is strengthened by word of mouth dramatic stories about "file" friends, acquaintances or familiar acquaintances who died after drinking alcohol. Technologies for the use of placebo in narcology include various actions: from intravenous injections of a solution of nicotinic acid (vitamin PP), magnesium sulfate - causing a feeling of heat and suffocation, to imitation of surgical operations with an imaginary "filing". During these procedures, the doctor uses the so-called "provocation", that is, he gives the patient alcohol to drink in order to cause a reaction and increase the fear of death. The use of placebos in narcology is practiced only in the Russian Federation and some CIS countries and grossly contradicts the world practice of treating narcological patients.

Based on one study conducted on 15 patients with anxiety disorder and published in 1965, it was shown that the placebo effect can work even when the patient was told that he was taking a "blank" drug. This phenomenon can be explained by the patient's faith in the method itself.