The Galatea Effect

The Galatea effect is named after Greek mythological story of Pygmalion and Galatea. It is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby an individual’s actual performance or completion of a task is affected by his or her belief and trust in his or her abilities and potential for success. When an individual holds a belief and has confidence that he or she will be able to perform good, this self-belief in turn leads to actual success. What happens is that expectations themselves work as self-fulfilling prophecies. Just like in the Pygmalion effect, where a teacher’s high expectations from his or her pupil leads to high performance, the Galatea effect impacts individuals’ ability to finish a task, meet deadlines and also their ability to work as a team.