The Pygmalion effect is the idea that other people's expectations of a person can shape how that person performs. It takes its name from the Greek myth of the sculptor Pygmalion, who fell in love with his statue and watched it come to life. In 1968 the psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson argued in Pygmalion in the Classroom that teachers' expectations of students affect their progress: high expectations led to better performance and low ones to worse, both examples of self-fulfilling prophecy. The proposed mechanism is that students internalise the labels they receive and act accordingly. The effect is often cited in discussions of education and social class. However, it remains controversial, because researchers have repeatedly failed to replicate the original strong, statistically significant result.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.