By Eser Yilmaz, M.S., Ph.D. What is a self-fulfilling prophecy? Find out about the theory and research behind this concept and learn how you can avoid negative self-fulfilling prophecies.
Sometimes we just have that feeling deep inside that we know precisely how something will play out or how someone – or ourselves – will behave in a specific situation. And when our predictions come true, we perceive them as evidence that we know how people act or how the gears of society turn. But what if it is us and our beliefs that turn those gears and bring about the outcomes we expect? This may sound like a blurb of a science fiction novel, but it is a scientific concept we call a self-fulfilling prophecy. In this article, we’ll discuss the theory behind self-fulfilling prophecies and dig into the research about this concept. Furthermore, we will explore several examples of self-fulfilling prophecies and find out how we can prevent negative self-fulfilling prophecies from becoming a reality. Before reading on, if you're a therapist, coach, or wellness entrepreneur, be sure to grab our free Wellness Business Growth eBook to get expert tips and free resources that will help you grow your business exponentially.
Are You a Therapist, Coach, or Wellness Entrepreneur? ✓ Save hundreds of hours of time ✓ Earn more $ faster A self-fulfilling prophecy is a belief about a future event that leads people to act a certain way, ultimately bringing about the expected outcome. In other words, our expectations can come true by influencing our behaviors. A striking aspect of self-fulfilling prophecies is that these predictions may be divorced from objective reality at the beginning but have the power to alter people’s behavior in such a way that they become the new reality in the end. Typically, a self-fulfilling prophecy consists of a three-step loop (figure 1). The first step is the prophecy itself, which is a person’s belief about a future outcome. The second step of the loop is the behavioral response. This might be the attitude of the person, their behavior as a response to their predictions, or it may include the reactions of others. The third step is when the prophecy comes true due to the actions in the second step. Moreover, the occurrence of the anticipated outcome confirms the original belief and primes the person to hold on to the same notion in similar situations in the future.
The concept of self-fulfilling prophecies has been known for millennia, as there are many examples in mythology and literature of several cultures. In fact, the philosopher Karl Popper named this same phenomenon “the Oedipus effect” in his book The Poverty of Historicism (Popper, 1957) after the Greek mythology character, Oedipus, who fulfills a tragic prophecy by taking actions to avoid it. Nonetheless, the widely-used term “self-fulfilling prophecy” was coined in the mid-20th century by a sociologist named Robert Merton (Merton, 1948). Let’s take a closer look at this concept and what sociology and psychology research has taught us about self-fulfilling prophecies.
Robert Merton’s notion of the self-fulfilling prophecy implies that an initially false social belief influences people’s actions in such a way that the original falsehood ultimately becomes true (Merton, 1948). One major inspiration for Merton’s idea was the Thomas theorem, which states that “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” (Thomas and Thomas, 1928). One of the most prominent examples of self-fulfilling prophecies in psychology research is the placebo vs. nocebo effect. Briefly, a placebo effect is observing a positive health outcome following an inactive treatment (Crum and Phillips, 2015). A nocebo effect is the opposite of this observation when the health outcome is negative (Crum and Phillips, 2015). In both cases, the health outcome is brought about by the power of belief; when the person believes they receive a beneficial treatment, they report positive changes to their health, but when they think they receive a harmful treatment, they report undesirable effects. But what shapes a patient’s opinion about interventions, and what are the implications of placebo or nocebo effects? Many people’s views are influenced by the information they receive from their health care providers. Therefore, it is crucial for health care staff to keep in mind that the way they interact with and inform a patient might have a powerful effect on that patient’s treatment (Johnson, 2014). Moreover, in countries like the U.S., where pharmaceutical companies advertise their products directly to consumers, a patient’s perception of a treatment’s efficacy may be influenced by these advertisements, affecting their treatment outcomes (Kamenica, Naclerio, and Malani, 2013). What about sociology research? Self-fulfilling prophecies have been studied in numerous social contexts ranging from classroom expectations to racial stereotypes. Yet, the distinguishing feature of psychology and sociology research concerning this topic is that psychology research focuses on how our beliefs affect our behavior, whereas sociology research also accounts for how the opinions of others affect our thoughts and behaviors. One of the best-known examples of the latter is the Pygmalion effect. The self-fulfilling prophecy in a classic experiment Eight months later, when the researchers revisited the classrooms, they administered IQ tests to both groups of students and discovered that the students in the growth-spurter group tested significantly higher even though they were equal before (Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968). Upon further inspection, the researchers noticed that the teachers’ expectations of a student changed their behavior toward them, such as giving the growth-spurter kids more attention and support, which then was internalized by the students to alter their self-beliefs and actions, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy about students’ intellectual growth (Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968). Here is a video about the Pygmalion effect that you may enjoy. Another prominent sociological concept based on self-fulfilling prophecies is the stereotype threat, in which the members of a group can be affected by the stereotypical notions about that group (Steele, 1997). For instance, female students are typically expected to perform worse than their male counterparts in science and math-related subjects (Steele, 1997). These gender-specific expectations eventually result in fewer women than men choosing fields such as engineering. Similarly, stereotype threat is also applicable to race; teachers often expect Black or Latino students to perform worse than white or Asian students (Steele, 1997), resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy about student success in the classroom and beyond. Self-fulfilling prophecies can have positive or negative effects, depending on the starting false belief. For instance, a placebo effect is a positive self-fulfilling prophecy, whereas a nocebo effect is a negative self-fulfilling prophecy. Similarly, a teacher’s opinion about a student can be positive or negative, affecting the student’s success by enhancing or weakening it. When the original false belief is positive and leads to desirable effects, it may benefit the individual. For instance, if we believe that we can accomplish a difficult task and act accordingly, we may be more likely to achieve it. However, when the self-fulfilling prophecy is negative, it can potentially impact the person or society in undesirable ways. This may be especially detrimental when people’s actions are informed by false biases, such as negative opinions against groups of people based on their gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
There are many self-fulfilling prophecy examples around us. Here are a few that you might have heard about or witnessed.
Here is an informative video with other prominent self-fulfilling prophecy examples that you may enjoy. Whether intimate, between friends, or within a family, relationships are constantly shaped by individuals' actions. And since the actions and behaviors of individuals are informed by their thoughts, beliefs, and expectations, numerous examples of self-fulfilling prophecies occur in relationships. Here are a few examples.
As discussed earlier, negative self-fulfilling prophecies may affect an individual’s success, happiness, and general well-being. If we are caught in the cycle of a negative self-fulfilling prophecy about ourselves, we may be putting obstacles on our journeys. Therefore, we might want to consider the validity of our opinions before letting them influence our actions. Want to learn more? Check out these articles: If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in. Self-fulfilling prophecies are false beliefs that cause people to act in a certain way, which results in the occurrence of the original predictions. Sociology and psychology research has provided a lot of information about how self-fulfilling prophecies can affect individuals or populations, and there are numerous everyday examples of self-fulfilling prophecies we can learn from. Moreover, given that self-fulfilling prophecies can be positive or negative, we might benefit from boosting positive self-fulfilling prophecies and avoiding negative ones.
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