Studies and Experiments

Pygmalion in the Classroom

Citation Formats

General Reference

Psychology Atlas. "Pygmalion in the Classroom." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://psychology.interactiveatlas.org/studies/pygmalion-in-the-classroom.

APA Style

Psychology Atlas. (n.d.). Pygmalion in the Classroom. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://psychology.interactiveatlas.org/studies/pygmalion-in-the-classroom

BibTeX

@misc{psychologyatlas-pygmalion-in-the-classroom,
  author = {Psychology Atlas},
  title = {Pygmalion in the Classroom},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://psychology.interactiveatlas.org/studies/pygmalion-in-the-classroom},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson's 1968 study tested whether a teacher's expectations of a pupil could itself shape that pupil's academic performance. Jacobson, then principal of a South San Francisco elementary school, and Rosenthal, a Harvard psychologist she had approached after reading his earlier work on experimenter-expectancy effects, had teachers told that a randomly chosen fifth of their pupils, chosen with no relation to any real test result, were due for a marked intellectual growth spurt that year.

Facts

Key Finding

Children's performance was enhanced if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from them: first- and second-grade pupils arbitrarily labeled as growth spurters showed statistically significant IQ gains over the school year compared with their untagged classmates, though the effect was weaker and less consistent in the older grades tested. 1

Study Year

1968 1

Cross-Tradition Connections