The Power of Expectations
Rev. Roger Fritts
March 17, 1996
Cedar Lane Unitarian Church
Bethesda, Maryland
In the spring of 1964 researchers conducted an experiment in a public elementary school.Rosenthal, Robert & Jacobson, Lenore, Pygmalion in the Classroom; Teacher Expectation and Pupils Intellectual Development,
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1968. They
gave a standardized intelligence test to the school's children. The researchers told the teachers
that the test could predict academic "blooming" or "spurting." In the fall of 1964 the researchers
gave each teacher a list of up to nine children who were students in the teacher's class. They
explained to the teachers that the intelligence test had identified these children as "blooming" or
"spurting." They told the teachers they could expect the children on the list to do well during the
next school year.
In reality the students on the list had been selected at random. Some had scored well on the test,
others had received an average score and some had done poorly. At the end of the year the
researchers again gave the students the standardized intelligence test. In the first grade, the
students whom researchers did not identify to the teachers as special had an average increase in
their IQ of twelve points. In contrast, the students whom the teachers were told would do well
had an average increase in their IQ of 27.4 points. In other words, the kids the teachers thought
would do well did more than twice as well as the average student. This happened although the
kids who got the high scores were simply a random cross section of the students in the first
grade.
Educators call this the "Pygmalion effect" after the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.
The 1964 study suggested that the expectations of the teacher are a factor in the success of a
student.
When I read about this research in 1968, it spoke to my own experiences as a student. In my own
life some teachers obviously had high regard for my abilities and some teachers did not. It
seemed obvious to me that I worked harder for and learned more from those teachers who had
high expectations for me. I learned less from those who did not.
It has been twenty-eight years since I first heard of the "Pygmalion effect." I went to the library to
see how researchers view it today. I looked at summaries of the educational research done on this
topic since the mid-1960s.Good, Thomas, "Two Decades of Research on Teacher Expectations: Findings and Future Directions," Journal of Teacher
Education, July-August 1987 pages 32-47. Didham, Cheryl, "Equal Opportunity in the Classroom--Making Teachers Aware," paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Teacher Educators, Las Vegas Feb. 5-8, 1990.
Not all follow-up research confirmed the dramatic results of the first study. Many elements
influence a teacher's behavior and a student's learning. Researchers find it difficult to pinpoint
cause and effect. However, many educators today believe that the expectations teachers have for
students are a factor in the students' ability to learn. Researchers have found widespread
evidence that teachers' expectations do influence students' achievement, motivation, and self
esteem. The younger the student, the stronger the impact teachers' expectations have on the
students.
Over the years this insight has played an important part in my own values. As a husband and a
parent I remind myself daily that my expectations have an influence on my family. If I expect
them to be intelligent, sensitive, growing, learning people, my expectations will have a positive
influence on them. I believe because of my expectations, my children will be a bit more
intelligent and sensitive. On the other hand, if I expect my children to be dishonest or foolish,
they will be a bit more dishonest or foolish.
The Pygmalion effect influences ministers also. One of the country's best know ministers tells
the following story:
I owe my reputation and the development of my skills to my early parishioners.
During my first year, I was loud but dull. Attendance dropped and I thought my
days were numbered. However, starting with the second year people filled the
sanctuary. One day at lunch I even overheard a member of the city council say to a
guest, "That is the wonderful new preacher at First Parish." At first I was proud, but
soon I felt the pressure of this complement and invested even more effort in my
sermons. Before long they were not bad. Yet I always wondered how I got the
reputation as a good preacher in the first place. A few years ago I got the answer.
An old friend told me that after the first year influential leaders in the church held a
secret meeting. They were afraid they would have to fire me if my preaching did not
improve. They discussed what to do. Finally, the most prominent person in the
church made a suggestion. She said they all should start spreading the word to
everyone they knew that I was the most promising preacher they had ever heard.
"Very soon," the woman told the others, "he will start to live the message."Quoted in Finding Foxes, by Terry Sweetser, Rising Press, Atlanta, Georgia, © 1985, 1988, page 30.
Like the six-year-old children in the experiment, the positive expectations for the minister caused
him to grow and develop.
Another field where people are trying to understand the impact of expectations is the field of
medical care. Consider the case of a medical doctor and Unitarian Universalist, Tony Sattilaro. In
the late 1970s Tony was the president of Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia. He won a fight with
cancer by changing his diet. In looking closely at Tony's story, I believe one important element in
his recovery is that he surrounded himself with people who believed he could get well. The
doctors--his colleagues--told him that he was loaded with cancer and that he had only a few
years to live. However, each evening Tony ate a macrobiotic dinner with seven people who
believed that Tony's change in diet would make him healthy.
As a Unitarian Universalist I have difficulty with any claim, particularly a claim about life and
death, which has little scientific research to support it. I am steeped in reason. If a doctor were to
tell me that he saw no hope of recovery from an illness, I would tend to trust that view. However,
Tony had dinner every evening with seven unscientific people. In spite of the medical evidence,
they expected him to get well. Listen to Tony's own description of the experience:
They were enthusiastic about what they were doing, They believed in
macrobiotics implicitly. . . . Each of them believed beyond any doubt that the food
would make me well. The importance of this alone is beyond calculation. I was in
the midst of a group of people who believed that if I continued to practice this
diet, it would cure me of cancer. They never doubted it for a moment, and after a
while--in my stronger moments--I even started to believe it, too.Sattilaro, Anthony, Recalled by Life, Avon Books, New York, 1982, page 90.
I met Tony at the house of the Unitarian Universalist minister in Philadelphia a year after he was
told he was loaded with cancer. At that point he was cancer-free. I am not an expert on diet, but I
do believe part of what was going on was the placebo effect. Between 15% and 70% of people
treated with placebos report positive results. This happens although researchers may not have
established scientifically that an alternative treatment has value. What we do know is that the
care giver often has positive expectations for the recovery of the client and expresses these
positive expectations to the person who is ill.
One example of this was the report in a May 1994 issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
One general practitioner randomly assigned his patients who had symptoms but no
abnormal signs and in whom no definite diagnosis could be made, to a positive or
a negative encounter with him. In the positive encounter, patients were given a
diagnosis and told they would be better in a few days. In the negative encounter,
the doctor told patients he was not certain what was the matter with them. Two
weeks later 64% of the positive group, but only 39% of the negative group
reported that they had gotten better."The Importance of Placebo Effects in Pain Treatment and Research," various authors, JAMA May 25, 1994, pages 1609-13.
(Thank you to JoAnne King, who found this and other articles on the placebo effect for me.)
Bernie Siegel, the Yale University doctor and the author of the book Love, Medicine and
Miracles, describes a man who posted a notice above his hospital bed. The man addressed the
notice: "To any new physician on my case." It read in part:
I know I have bad cancer. I read my protocol and I know it may kill me. Many
people die from what I have. I know the statistics. There is no need to repeat them.
I have heard it many times from well-meaning people who feel it is the
physician's duty to level with the patient . . . particularly when I have appeared too
hopeful at times. Good thoughts, friendship, advice, encouragement, hope, love,
energy, smiles, are all gratefully accepted. Please leave pessimism, downers,
bitterness, pity and negative preachiness at the door, without, of course, being
dishonest.
Norman Cousins, author of Anatomy of an Illness, The Healthy Heart, and The Biology of Hope
spent the last fourteen years of his life researching these issues at the UCLA School of Medicine.
A few months before his death in 1990, I was fortunate to arrange for Cousins to speak at the
Unitarian Universalist church I was serving in Evanston, Illinois. He said:
Nothing I have learned in the past decade at the medical school seems to me more
striking than the need of patients for reassurance. . . . Illness is a terrifying
experience. Something is happening that people don't know how to deal with.
They are reaching out not just for medical help but for ways of thinking about
catastrophic illness. . . . Reassurance is not a Pollyanna concoction aimed at
deception. It is not a verbal tranquilizer for creating a mood of synthetic calm. It is
a way of putting the human spirit to work . . . The wise physician . . . instead of
dwelling on all the melancholy possibilities, offers a plan of battle in which the
patient has an active role.Quoted from Head First, the Biology of Hope, by Norman Cousins, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1989, page 66.
In talking about expectations Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has said that no one should ever tell a
patient that he or she is dying. She says no one should give an estimate of how long the patient
has to live. Instead, medical staff should simply say, "You have a serious illness and we are
doing all we can to help."
I am particularly concerned these days when I read and hear that AIDS is always fatal, or that
everyone who is HIV positive will eventually die of AIDS. In truth, there are cases of reversals of
HIV diagnoses reported in the medical press. Although they are rare, there are a few cases of
persons who have tested positive for HIV and have later tested free of HIV. Norman Cousins
said:
Putting terror and defeatism behind us in thinking about AIDS is important.
Indeed, one main impediment to an effective attack on AIDS is the public hysteria
associated with the disease. This hysteria produces a climate in which persons
whom doctors diagnose as HIV positive go into a state of emotional collapse. This
collapse compromises both treatment and potentiation of the patient's own
resources. AIDS is another example of the fact that the way in which we think
about a disease affects the outcome.Quoted from Head First, the Biology of Hope, by Norman Cousins, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1989, page 78.
I think of my friend, the director of music at my former church. He was told in December of 1987
that he was HIV positive and that he would die within six months. He is still alive today, still
conducting and writing music for the church. He has a serious illness,. He has lost both his legs
to cancer, related to AIDS. However, no one can say when he will die. No one can predict when
any of us will die.
I believe deeply that by my expectations of others I have an impact on whom they are. On the one
hand, if I expect people to be caring and intelligent and honest, my expectations will have a
positive influence on them. They will be a little more caring, intelligent and honest. If I expect
people to learn and grow, they are a little more likely to learn and grow. On the other hand, if I
think people will never learn, then they are less likely to learn.
Expectations play a role in communities as well as in individuals. Expectations even play a role
in churches. We are in the process of establishing a long-range plan for this church. Meetings
will be held this week and next, inviting your input. I fully expect this congregation to come up
with an exciting long-range plan that will result in this church better serving this congregation
and the wider community.
To put this in religious terms, I am talking about the power of faith. I have faith in the potential
of people to grow and learn and heal. I have faith in the power of the human spirit. Not all the
time, of course. However, when I have moments of despair, I remind myself of that experiment
with children back in 1964. I remember that the six-year-olds who the teachers expected to do
well did more than twice as well as the six-year-olds the teachers thought were average. Our faith
in people can make a difference in their lives. When I doubt this, I remember the people who, in
the face of serious illness, have extended the length of their lives.
So I have faith in the power of the human spirit. I expect that every person can grow and change.
It is part of Unitarian Universalist belief in the potential goodness of every person. It is part of
whom I try to be as a father, a husband, a minister and a human being. And I hope my faith in the
power of the human spirit rubs off on all of you.
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