Rosenthal Effect

The term Rosenthal effect is defined in its most general form as the effect of interpersonal expectations (i.e., the finding that what one person has come to expect from another can come to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy). This concept is relevant to educational psychology in two distinct domains: the domain of research methodology (the experimenter expectancy effect) and the domain of learning and behavior (the teacher expectancy effect).

The concept of interpersonal expectation effects has been investigated in a wide array of settings, including the relationship between judges' expectations and their nonverbal behavior as they address the jury, and juries' subsequent verdicts of guilty or not guilty; the effects of managers' expectations for the performance of their employees, and employees' actual subsequent performance; and the ...