A well-known teaching phenomenon is that if you tell a kid that he or she is really smart, that kid will come to believe it and do well. On the other hand, if you tell a kid he or she is stupid and keep doing that, he or she will believe that as well.
The same psychological results apply for groups of people. Tell a bunch of kids from Lehigh Avenue that they won’t amount to anything, and soon they will behave badly and do their best to live up to their bad reputation or their stereotype.
You can see this for whole states. When I say, “This guy is from Kentucky, and he is a ___________,” what word do you supply? Hillbilly? Redneck?
Kentuckians know that is what people think, so they make an effort to live up to the common viewpoint. When Kentucky governor Matt Bevin announced that he exposed his nine children to chicken pox, we are not surprised, first, that he would have nine children, and second, that he would put his kids in danger. Nor would you be surprised that Gov. Bevin did his best to prevent the poorest residents of his state from receiving Medicaid.
We can’t imagine a governor of New York or Pennsylvania or New Jersey behaving that way. It’s Kentucky.
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