How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 304

even if they don't mean to. The rowdy kid in grade school knew everyone
perceived him as disruptive, and so he was. The teacher expected bad
behavior, and the expectations were fulfilled.
Consider the profound impact this can have in your own life. Are the
assumptions and expectations you have about yourself liberating or
victimizing? There are countless examples of "self-fulfilling prophecies,"
or the Rule of Expectations at work in everyday life. Ever notice how
people who think they're going to be fired suddenly experience a drop in
the quality and enthusiasm for their work? Then what happens? They get
fired! Their belief causes them to act a certain way, and those
expectations then work to bring about the very thing that at first was only
a figment of their imagination.
In another study, second graders listened to statements from their teachers
before taking a math test. There were three types of statements:
expectation, persuasion, or reinforcement. The expectation statements
went something like, "You know your math really well!" or "You work
really hard at your math." Persuasion statements involved sentences like,
"You should be good at math." or "You should be getting better math
grades." Finally, for the reinforcement statements, teachers said things
like, "I'm really happy about your progress" or "This is excellent work!"
Now, what do you think the results were? The scores were the highest in
the "expectation" category! Why were the expectation statements the most
effective? They created personal assumptions within each student. Those
assumptions conditioned the actual external results.[2]
[2]R. L. Miller, P. Brickman, and D. Bolen, "Attribution vs. Persuasion As a
Means for Modifying Behavior," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 3
(1975): 430–441.

Expectations of Others Affect Behavior
The expectations we create for others often become reality. This can have
interesting effects when applied out in the real world. This section
contains multiple examples of how expectations have changed the lives
and persuaded the behavior of other individuals.

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