Our beliefs about other people influence how we behave toward them.

Our behavior elicits corresponding behavior in others.

The behavior we elicit in others can reinforce our original beliefs about them.

Imagine that you had the power to create reality with your thoughts. For example, what if you could make other people behave in ways that conform to your ideas about them? Well, guess what? Research shows that you can!

This capability goes by a number of names, such as behavioral confirmation, the self-fulfilling prophecy, and the Pygmalion effect. It involves how we unconsciously elicit behavior in others, and sometimes ourselves, that leads to outcomes that correspond to our beliefs and assumptions.

Rosenthal and Jacobson’s Classic Study

The seminal investigation of this phenomenon was published in 1966. In their classic study, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson told elementary school teachers that some of the children in their classes were academic “growth spurters” based on the students’ performance on an aptitude test. However, the aptitude test was actually fake, and the students were simply chosen at random.

Remarkably, though, the students who were falsely identified as gifted scored higher on a genuine IQ test at the end of the school year. The teachers’ baseless beliefs about the........

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