The Golem effect is the mirror image of the Pygmalion effect: when leaders or teachers expect little of someone, that person's performance tends to drop.
Where it comes from
The name comes from the golem of Jewish legend, a clay figure that turns destructive. Elisha Babad, Jacinto Inbar and Robert Rosenthal introduced the term in a 1982 study of Israeli teachers. Teachers who were more susceptible to biasing information treated the pupils they expected little from less favorably, and those pupils did worse.¹
Where it goes wrong
It is easy to assume that low expectations only matter when someone says them out loud. Research on expectation effects suggests they travel through small, everyday signals: a cooler tone, less feedback, fewer challenging assignments, less time to answer.²
Talent Takeaway
Think of the person on your team you expect least from, and look back at the last month. Who got the interesting assignments, the detailed feedback, the benefit of the doubt? If the answer is someone else, start there.
¹ Babad, E. Y., Inbar, J., & Rosenthal, R. (1982). Pygmalion, Galatea, and the Golem: Investigations of biased and unbiased teachers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74(4), 459–474.
² Harris, M. J., & Rosenthal, R. (1985). Mediation of interpersonal expectancy effects: 31 meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 97(3), 363–386.
Further reading: Davidson, O. B., & Eden, D. (2000). Remedying Golem effects among disadvantaged women: A field experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(3), 386–398.