Robert Rosenthal, biography of the discoverer of the Pygmalion effect

Robert Rosenthal is an American psychologist of German origin who became famous throughout the world for the discovery of the Pygmalion effect. This is a phenomenon that illustrates the power of expectations on behavior. In very synthetic terms, people, without realizing it, adapt their performance to what is expected of them to the best of their ability.

This has not been Robert Rosenthal’s only contribution. This researcher He has conducted numerous studies on the role that self-fulfilling prophecies play in everyday life., but also within the framework of research laboratories. Likewise, he has explored the role of expectations in the relationship between doctors and the physical and mental health of their patients.

Robert Rosenthal’s work has also been focused on the study of the role of non-verbal communication in the formation of interpersonal expectations. His work has had a great influence on research methods in psychology. In particular, because it has shown how the researcher’s expectations influence the results of the studies.

The life of Robert Rosenthal

Robert Rosenthal was born on March 2, 1933 in Giessen, Germany. Six years later, his family had to flee the country due to the rise of Nazism. This is how they came to the United States, where they settled. There is no further information about those first years in the new country.

In 1956, Rosenthal earned a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, at the University of California, Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter he completed his training in the Veterans Affairs clinical training program in 1957. He was then hired as a teacher at the University of North Dakota, where he developed and directed a doctoral program in clinical psychology. .

A little later he opted for social psychology. He was first a lecturer in this area, and later became a professor of social psychology and chairman of the psychology department at Harvard University. He worked there until 1999, when he was hired as a full-time professor at the University of California, Riverside.

A dedicated researcher

Robert Rosenthal is extraordinarily relevant in the field of social psychology. His first notable study was the one he carried out with Professor Fode in 1963. Rosenthal was convinced that the expectations of one who has the power to evaluate individuals, whether in ordinary life or under laboratory conditions, exert a decisive influence on the results of said evaluation or investigation.

The first experiment to support his hypothesis was done with standard rats, raised in the laboratory, without any special characteristics. First of all, he divided them into two groups. Later, a group of students participated, who were told that those in the first group had been raised in a “bright labyrinth,” which is why they were more intelligent. Those in the second group came from a “boring labyrinth” and were therefore sillier.

The students’ job was to train these animals, so that they would gain the ability to navigate a maze. It turned out that the supposedly raised rats in the “bright maze” performed much better than those apparently raised in the “dull maze.” Rosenthal was on a certain lead: the researchers’ expectations had influenced the animals’ performance.

The Pygmalion effect

Although Robert Rosenthal has conducted a large number of experiments and studies, the most famous of them was what resulted in the postulation of the Pygmalion effect. He carried it out on the initiative of an elementary school teacher, named Leonore Jacobson, in 1965.

The experiment was applied for the first time in a school in 1966. It consisted of practicing a supposed intelligence test to which they gave the false name of the Harvard Conjugate Acquisition Test. It was administered to children in grades one through six and it was said that the test measured IQ, when it did not.

Teachers were told that children who scored highly would surely make unprecedented progress in the following year. Then, false results were given: some students were chosen at random and reported to have obtained high scores on the test. As expected, these children performed better in school. Teachers’ expectations had influenced their performance.

An exemplary academic

Robert Rosenthal has done several studies along the same lines of the Pygmalion effect, this time between dyads such as doctor-patient, manager-employee, judge-jury and psychotherapist-patient. The results are consistent, although at the time these findings generated strong controversy.

Rosenthal has written several books and essays about his research. The best known are: On the social psychology of the self-fulfilling prophecy: Additional evidence for Pygmalion effects and their mediating mechanisms. (1974); Trial studies: design, analysis and meta-analysis (1987); and Fundamentals of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data Analysis (2008).

In addition, Robert Rosenthal has also won several awards, such as the Gold Medal Award from the American Psychological Foundation (2003); the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award; the James McKeen Cattell Award (APS, 2001); and the Distinguished Scientist Award (1996, 2009). Due to his countless contributions, he is one of the great references of contemporary psychology.

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