Telling teachers which students would 'bloom' made those students actually bloom

In 1965, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson gave elementary school teachers a list of students primed to show a sudden leap in ability that year — the names were picked entirely at random. By year's end, those students had gained more on IQ tests than their classmates, especially in the earliest grades. The teachers' raised expectations appeared to change how they taught, not just what they privately believed.

— Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, Pygmalion in the Classroom — Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968
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