Self-fulfilling prophecy

Have you ever felt that you can just sense the future? For instance, you are up all night doing an assignment and you feel good about it. You expect that you will excel in the assignment, and you actually end up receiving a good grade. This is not a concept limited to Doctor Strange’s magical powers but an observed and studied psychological phenomenon called the self-fulfilling prophecy.

The term “self-fulfilling prophecy” was first coined by Merton as a false definition of a situation that evokes a new behavior, that makes the original false conception come true⁸. It hints at a backward process where our expectation of a particular outcome will change our behavior toward achieving that outcome, thus reinforcing our original belief. This concept has been used in various fields, from teaching children to the development of new medicines. There has also been research on some negative areas linked to self-fulfilling prophecy such as racism and prejudices. But even though negative effects of self-fulfilling prophecies have been observed, the advantages far outweigh the downsides, and it provides us with numerous benefits.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a powerful tool that has been found to contribute to a child’s academic excellence. In one of social psychology’s most famous studies, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968) examined teachers’ expectations of their students. They falsely created an expectation in the teacher’s mind about which students will do good. They found that the students who were thought to be better than other students achieved significantly higher scores than other students⁹. We can use the findings from this study to better train our teachers and make them aware of how their expectations affect their students’ performance.

Furthermore, self-fulfilling prophecy can also be used to increase people’s performance levels. Experiments have shown that subjects given high expectations by researchers at the beginning of an experiment consistently outperformed those given low expectations⁷. This has also been replicated in a field setting where a strong relationship has been found between a leader’s expectation and their subordinate’s performance². Because of this, self-fulfilling prophecies work as an excellent management tool that can help create a good work environment.

Self-fulfilling prophecies are also important in pharmacological research in the form of a placebo effect. It is a phenomenon in which the very act of undergoing treatment helps the patient recover even when they did not receive any meaningful treatment³. The patient’s beliefs about the “treatment” affected how they experienced it. Using a control group who are given placebos has become a staple in double-blind experiments that have contributed to the development of numerous medicines⁴.

Additionally, interpersonal relationships can also be affected by the belief about their significant other⁵. For instance, if a person starts dating someone under the impression of them being “the one” for them, they might invest more time and effort into expecting the relationship to last. This will cause his partner to appreciate the effort and feel the same way about them which will in turn cause their relationship to be a long and happy one. Conversely, this can also be seen in a negative light where someone’s assumption about their partner not being “the one” will cause them to put less effort into ruining their relationship. However, the research on this topic of self-fulfilling prophecy and relationships has been proved to be difficult because it is hard to eliminate other variables that may contribute to the quality of a relationship⁶.

Even though we have talked about self-fulfilling prophecies manifesting in positive scenarios, this phenomenon also has an unfortunate side to it. Merton (1948) studied how self-fulfilling prophecies play out in racial prejudices and discrimination. He found that people with racial prejudices were more likely to treat racial people in such a way that led them to confirm their original prejudices. He also noticed that when a group of people is treated as inferior, they are not given the same opportunities which ultimately hinders their ability to improve themselves⁸.

We can observe self-fulfilling prophecy to work like a cycle that leads to certain thoughts and behavior whether it be good or bad. For example, when a person is prejudiced against a group of people, it influences them to act in a discriminatory way. This will then impact the discriminated persons’ thoughts and behaviors ultimately reinforcing the original prejudice.

Thankfully though, we are not destined to fall prey to this negative side of self-fulfilling prophecies. Research has shown that if we pay attention to our biases, we can set aside our expectations and overcome this trap¹. Thus, I believe that we can use self-fulfilling prophecies to our advantage and achieve better in life; all the while avoiding its negative aspects.

References

1. Aronson E, Wilson TD, Fehr B, Akert RM. Social Psychology, Sixth Canadian Edition. ISBN 9780134202990, 0134202996
2. Berlew DE, Hall DT. The socialization of managers: Effects of expectations on performance. Administrative Science Quarterly. 1966 Sep 1:207-23. doi:10.2307/2391245
3. Brown WA. Harnessing the placebo effect. Hospital Practice. 1998 Jul 15;33(7):107-16. doi:10.3810/hp.1998.07.98
4. De Craen AJ, Kaptchuk TJ, Tijssen JG, Kleijnen J. Placebos and placebo effects in medicine: historical overview. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 1999 Oct;92(10):511-5. doi:10.1177/014107689909201005
5. Downey G, Freitas AL, Michaelis B, Khouri H. The self-fulfilling prophecy in close relationships: rejection sensitivity and rejection by romantic partners. Journal of personality and social psychology. 1998 Aug;75(2):545.
6. Jussim L. Social perception and social reality: A reflection-construction model. Psychological review. 1991 Jan;98(1):54-73.
7. Korman AK. Expectancies as determinants of performance. Journal of Applied Psychology. 1971 Jun;55(3):218-22. doi:10.1037/h0031154
8. Merton RK. The self-fulfilling prophecy. The antioch review. 1948 Jul 1;8(2):193-210. doi:10.2307/4609267
9. Rosenthal R, Jacobson L. Pygmalion in the classroom. The urban review. 1968 Sep;3(1):16-20.