
The Pygmalion Effect: an invisible nudge towards success - anthilemoon
https://nesslabs.com/pygmalion-effect
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[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21641360](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21641360)
sounded familiar, turns out I had read that it didn't replicate (surprise)
within the past week on hn

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lonelappde
Incredibly, the OP argues in favor of "wishing people smart makes them smart"
by citing a famous example of a _fraud_! It conflates expectations of
_behavior_ influencing people who want to confirm, with expectation of
_success_ creating success.

As with most psych studies, there's probably a grain of truth -- of course
_investing_ in people tends to make them more successful, but it's not simple
magic tricks.

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anthilemoon
I can't access the link — would love to read that paper. Here is a more
detailed and nuanced article showing that it did replicate when the bias was
unconscious: [https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/being-honest-about-
the...](https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/being-honest-about-the-
pygmalion-effect)

Also I never used the word "smart" once in the article. I talk about learning
behavior and work performance instead.

