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Originally Posted by Sultana
I think that both optimism and pessimism can be self-fulfilling prophecies, yes?
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This may not be true on the larger scale but it sure is in the classroom.
A teacher who EXPECTS her students to be brilliant will find that the students pull better grade averages. The teacher, with a classroom of students of the same IQ score as the other teacher, but who is told or expects the students to be slower or even learning handicapped, will find that the student's grades are lower. I cannot point to it atm but I'm sure I could find the documents somewhere about one such study in which the teachers were told what kind of students they had, even though the students were the same in both classes. And the teacher's view seriously affected the students grades.
If this can be true in the classroom, why not in the workplace. The bosses attitude can make all the difference. The salesman who EXPECTS people to buy their product will exude a confidence in their product that people will find it hard to resist purchasing.
Now on the world wide level?? I think it would take a lot more than a simple expectation or optimism. Though if we were all pessimists how many of us would make any attempt to live peacefully with other nations and cultures?