Between Pygmalion and Golem: Exploring meta-perception and expectation dynamics in coach–athlete relationships

This study examines how coaches’ expectations shape athletes’ motivation and performance through the Pygmalion and Golem effects. Using a qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 coaches and 11 athletes from different sports. The findings show that coaches’ expectations are conveyed through leadership, communication, feedback, and trust-based relationships. Athletes’ meta-perceptions, alignment in coaches’ and athletes’ definitions of success, and the regulation of expectation-related stress emerged as the key mechanisms shaping the expectation process. While supportive relationships, aligned success definitions, and effective stress management strengthened self-efficacy and performance (Pygmalion effect), perceived withdrawal of expectations, misaligned success definitions, and poorly managed stress undermined motivation and performance (Golem effect). The findings further reveal that athletes may experience both Pygmalion and Golem patterns over time within the same coach–athlete relationship, indicating that expectation effects operate as a dynamic rather than a linear process. Accordingly, the study advances the literature by proposing an integrative relational process model demonstrating how coach expectations shape athlete performance through the interplay of success-definition alignment, meta-perception, and stress management.