Labeling

Recent publication.

Watt S. (2018) Labeling. In: Zeigler-Hill V., Shackelford T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8

Extract – Please visit the encyclopedia for the full article.

“Labeling is the act of assigning a simple word or phrase to an individual or group, such that the label defines the person or group and their other features are overlooked.

Labeling is a deceptively simple act that has pervasive consequences.  In a well-known study, Rosenthal and Fode (1963) found that randomly labeling rats as “maze-bright” or “maze-dull” resulted in “maze-bright” rats moving through a maze faster than “maze-dull” rats. Of course, the rats were not responding to the labels. Rather, their human handlers were; they trained the “maze-bright rats” better than “maze-dull” rats. Double-blind methods are now used to control such experimenter effects. In another study, Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) led school teachers to believe that some children would “bloom” intellectually over the following year. These children did indeed “bloom” relative to their classmates, presumably due to their teachers’ expectations. These two studies illustrate the self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby applying a label can produce behavior that is consistent with that label.  Labeling theory has addressed how this might work and has been especially prominent in the study of deviance and stigma. …”