An Elite Soldier Factory?

Military instructors were told some trainees had unusually high potential. The trainees had been chosen at random. Then they started outperforming everyone else.

In the early 1980s, 105 soldiers arrived at a combat command course in the Israel Defense Forces.

Before training began, their instructors received some useful information. Based on test scores, ratings from previous commanders, and other records, each trainee had been assessed for command potential. Some were rated high. Some were rated regular. For some, there wasn't enough information to say.

The instructors were asked to remember these ratings and use them as they got to know their trainees.

There was just one thing the instructors didn't know.

The ratings were fake. The trainees had been sorted into those groups at random.

The experiment

Organizational psychologist Dov Eden and his colleague Abraham Shani wanted to know whether expectations alone could change performance in a real-world setting, with real stakes.

Over the 15-week course, trainees took objective tests on the material, including combat tactics, topography, and navigation. The researchers also measured how the trainees felt about the course and their instructors.

The trainees whose instructors had been told they had high potential scored meaningfully higher on the tests than the others. They also reported more positive attitudes toward the course and more motivation to continue on as commanders.

Nothing about the trainees themselves was different at the start. The only thing that changed was what their instructors believed about them.

The Pygmalion effect

This phenomenon is called the Pygmalion effect, named after a Greek myth in which a sculptor falls so deeply in love with his statue that it comes to life.

The idea became famous after a 1968 study by psychologist Robert Rosenthal and school principal Lenore Jacobson. They told elementary school teachers that certain students were about to "bloom" intellectually. Those students, also chosen at random, showed larger gains in IQ scores by the end of the year.

How does a belief in someone's head change their performance?

It doesn't happen by magic. When people expect more from someone, they tend to treat them differently, often without realizing it. Researchers have found that high expectations tend to show up as more warmth, more attention, more feedback, and more challenging opportunities. Over time, those small differences add up.

In other words, the instructors didn't just believe in certain trainees. They invested in them.

The dark side: the Golem effect

The same thing can work in reverse.

When leaders expect less from someone, they may give less feedback, fewer opportunities, and less encouragement. Performance can decline to meet those lower expectations. Researchers call this the Golem effect, after a creature from Jewish folklore that turns destructive.

Many people have experienced both. The manager who saw something in you and pushed you to grow. And the one who made it clear they'd already decided what you were capable of.

Where this breaks down

The Pygmalion effect is real, but it has been overhyped.

Rosenthal and Jacobson's classroom study was criticized for problems with its methods, and later research found that expectation effects in schools are usually smaller than early headlines suggested. Studies in workplaces and the military, like Eden's, have tended to find stronger effects, but results vary.

And expectations aren't magic. You can't believe someone into skills they haven't built. What high expectations do is change the environment around a person: the support, the feedback, the chances they get to grow.

One more important point: these studies used false information to test the effect. In real life, the lesson isn't to deceive people. It's to recognize that genuine belief in someone's ability to improve is itself a powerful force.

How this shapes MIMR

For employers, this research carries an uncomfortable question: What do you currently expect from your people's health and performance?

Many workplaces quietly assume that exhaustion, stress, and burnout are simply part of the job. That's a kind of Golem effect at the organizational level.

MIMR is built on the opposite expectation: that everyone can improve, and that it's worth measuring and rewarding when they do.

Measurement matters here too. Expectations are often shaped by vague impressions. When people can see real, objective evidence of improvement, it becomes easier for leaders, and for employees themselves, to believe that more is possible.

Because sometimes the most important thing a leader can do isn't to tell people what they're capable of.

It's to act like they believe it.