Labeling

Abstract

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; their expectations led them to train “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, again as a function of expectations (held by their teachers) that were prompted by the label. These two studies illustrate the selffulfilling 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.