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The Pygmalion effect, named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion and his statue, is expressed by saying:- People tend to behave as you expect they will. (self-fulfilling prophecy)
George Bernard Shaw wrote a play, Pygmalion, which was later popularized by the musical My Fair Lady. The character Henry Higgins believes the cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle can be made into a lady. Higgins' belief in her drives her to make it.
In Eliza Doolittle's own words:
You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will, but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.
