Читать книгу The Communication Playbook - Teri Kwal Gamble - Страница 134

Perhaps the most widely known example of the self-fulfilling prophecy is the Pygmalion effect. The term comes from the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor, who falls in love with a beautiful statue of his own creation. The goddess Aphrodite, moved by Pygmalion’s obsession with the statue, comes to his rescue and brings it to life. The playwright George Bernard Shaw adapted the story to a more modern setting and Shaw’s version, in turn, served as the basis for the stage and film musical My Fair Lady. In this version, Henry Higgins (Pygmalion) seeks to transform an unsophisticated flower seller, Eliza Doolittle, into a refined, well-spoken lady. The play illustrates the principle that we live up to labels.

We, like Eliza Doolittle, learn to act like the people others perceive us to be. If, for example, a parent tells a child that he or she cannot do anything right, the child will soon incorporate this idea into his or her self-concept and fail at most of the tasks he or she attempts. In contrast, if a parent repeatedly demonstrates to a child that he or she is lovable or capable, the child will probably live up to the expectation.³⁷