That little voice in each of our heads can be extremely powerful. When your internal monologue is positive and upbeat, you can feel on top of the world. When it’s spitting out gloom and doom, you can feel down and out.(Examples of Self-fulfilling Prophecies)
In this way, the power of positive thinking is more than just a platitude, it can actually change your reality.
What you think about yourself, and others really do matter, particularly when it comes to creating self-fulfilling prophecies.
A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when your expectations and projections about yourself and the people around you have a real-world impact.
Positive expectations can lead to positive results, and negative expectations can sometimes do the opposite result.
What is a Self-fulfilling Prophecy?
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.
Types of Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Self-imposed prophecies
There are two types of self-fulfilling prophecies. First, there are self-imposed, which is when your expectations for yourself end up influencing your actions.
To give an example, let’s say you have a test to take. In the weeks leading up to the test, you keep telling yourself that you’re going to fail.
Maybe you don’t study as hard because you’re having a hard time concentrating or you feel like what’s the point if you’re just going to fail anyway.
On the day of the test, you’re nervous and anxious because you didn’t study as well as you should have. And then you end up failing the test, just as you thought you would.
This is just one of many examples of self-fulfilling prophecies that can occur, particularly when related to negative thinking, negative thoughts, or negative self-talk about your expected behavior or performance.
Other-imposed prophecies
There are also what’s called other-imposed prophecies, which occur when other people’s expectations influence your behavior.
To use the same testing example, perhaps you did indeed study for your test and feel prepared. But then you talk to your parents about the test, and they remind you about how you usually get stressed out when you take tests, that you shouldn’t get your hopes up about acing it.
When you sit down to take the test, their words echo in your head and make you struggle through the questions, resulting in a low score.
In both cases, there’s a mental effect that comes from a person’s own expectations, whether that person is you or someone you trust. A self-fulfilling prophecy can also come from the expectations of society at large, which we’ll get to later.
These expectations influence what a person believes, then their behavior, which ultimately results in the prophecy’s own fulfillment.
You can also check out Personal Morals and Values — A Self-reflection || Psychology Statistics Discussion || McDonaldization in Healthcare – What it is Plus It’s Impact
The cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecies are causal loops: thoughts affect feelings, which affect behaviors, which affect thoughts, and on and on and on.
Here’s how the cycle plays out in more detail:
- We create a belief(s) about ourselves or others
- These beliefs shape how we act in the world, affecting our decisions, the way we treat others, and the way we treat ourselves in relation to others
- How we act influences how other people treat us and create circumstances based on the thoughts we have
- The way people treat us and the life circumstances we create then reinforce the initial beliefs
Now, how do you break this cycle once it starts? That’s where cognitive behavioral therapy comes in.
By interrupting the cycle of thought-behavior-thought, you can start to release yourself from a causal loop.
For example, people with depression usually have thoughts of low self-esteem, which can trigger isolation, not taking care of themselves, and negative behavior which makes depression worse.
Changing the causal loop can be really difficult but once the cycle is broken, true healing can begin.
Positive versus Negative Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
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.
Examples of Self-fulfilling Prophecies
1. The Pygmalion Effect-This effect was first discovered by the psychologist Robert Rosenthal in the 1960s.
In a story to illustrate the Pygmalion effect, a flower girl is given false expectations of becoming more sophisticated and adapts her behavior accordingly.
This change in her behavior then makes the new personality trait a reality.
2. The Stereotype Threat– It is a negative self-fulfilling prophecy. In this phenomenon, individuals are exposed to negative stereotypes about their social group or identity. These stereotypes cause anxiety to the affected.
3. The placebo effect is based on the belief that a positive-minded patient is likely to benefit from treatment more than a negative patient. Positivity attracts better interactions between the body and the treatment.
4. Suggestibility Effect-This self-fulfilling prophecy was observed by psychologist Nicholas Spanos and his colleagues.
They found that a person’s suggestibility to hypnosis can be falsified if they are led to believe they are unable to be hypnotized.
5. False Consensus Effect self-fulfilling prophecy-The false consensus effect is a phenomenon in which people overestimate the degree to which others agree with them.
Some people rely on the agreeable talk of others and ignore the reality of life.
6. False Memory Effect-We tend to remember things that conform with our expectations and forget the times when they didn’t.
7. Self-Serving Bias-We attribute our successes to internal causes and blame others or outside factors for failures.
For example, an elementary school teacher takes credit when students perform well on a subject.
However, the same teacher will blame parents when students misbehave.
8. Optimism Bias self-fulfilling prophecy- Optimism bias is a positive self-fulfilling prophesy example.
It’s the tendency to predict positive outcomes even when there is little evidence that these predictions are likely to come true.
9. Pessimism Bias-It is the tendency to expect that a bad thing will happen. People who exhibit this negative self-fulfilling prophecy anticipate and attract negative outcomes.
10. Endowment Effect– This effect causes people to place a high value on things simply because they own them.
If someone else owned the same thing, the case would be different. An item’s value matches the owner’s positivity and not necessarily its real value.
As a result of this effect, people tend to demand much more to give up an object than they would be willing to pay to acquire it.
11. The illusion of control self-fulfilling prophecy– It tends to overestimate how much control we have over a situation and, therefore, take more risks.
12. Forer Effect-The Forer effect causes us to believe descriptions of personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for us.
This happens even when the descriptions are obviously vague and general enough to apply to anyone.
Also, it may happen when we mistakenly believe that someone is familiar because of a vague, non-descriptive statement about the person.
You can also check out The Future of College Education || How To Write A Satire Essay? +Examples, Topic Ideas, Structure
13. The illusion of Superiority self-fulfilling prophecy– It can be a negative or a positive self-fulfilling prophecy where individuals overestimate their abilities.
This kind of self-believe is sometimes risky but bears good fruits eventually.
14. Dunning-Kruger Effect- It refers to the tendency to be more confident than we should be.
We overestimate ourselves and fail at tasks that we are otherwise capable of completing.
Also, due to the Dunning-Kruger effect, people with little or no knowledge of a certain topic tend to overestimate their ability, and people with vast knowledge of that topic underestimate their ability.
16. Charm Effect self-fulfilling prophecy– This is the phenomenon in which a person’s attractiveness or charm affects the way others react to them.
The person’s looks attract good energy even though they may not be pleasant people.
17. The likability Effect refers to people’s tendency to view someone more positively when told that other people like them.
18. Lake Wobegon Effect-This shows our tendency to overestimate our accomplishments and abilities compared to others.
19. Herd Behavior- The natural human tendency to do what everyone else is doing, even if they are wrong.
20. Sunk Cost Fallacy-Our tendency to let the amount of time and money that has already been spent on a project negatively affect our decision to stop or continue with it.
21. Feedback Loop- A phenomenon that occurs when two or more events happen in sequence, where the result of one event is used as the input (causal factor) for the next event.
A positive feedback loop results in exponential growth. A small change at the beginning of the cycle can result in extremely large differences at the end of the cycle (the longer the cycle, the more extreme this effect can become).
A negative feedback loop results in an exponential decay and can be used to stabilize a system.
22. Criminal Law Effect- Because we tend to assume that all people are rational beings, we often blame the victims of crime for their misfortunes.
23. Halo Effect-We tend to assume that someone who has one good characteristic will have similar positive characteristics.
24. Primacy Effect-We tend to emphasize what comes first or what we have seen most recently.
25. The Recency Effect- People often emphasize what comes last or what we have seen most recently.
25. Normalcy Bias-Preference for things to remain the same even if they are clearly dysfunctional.
26. The Tragedy of the Commons- A situation where a shared resource is detrimental to all system users.
27. Information Cloud– A collection of related ideas, concepts, and opinions from which people can draw conclusions.
Information Clouds are very useful when trying to understand a topic that you’re not familiar with; the links between each piece of information should give you a better understanding of the whole.
28. Wisdom of Crowds-This theory states that a large group’s collective intelligence or judgment is greater than any single member of that group.
29. Bandwagon Effect- It explains that people will do (or believe in) things because other people do (or believe in) them.
30. Choice-supportive Bias- This is the tendency to remember one’s choices as better than they actually were.
31. Choice-justification Bias– We tend to defend our decisions by exaggerating their positive qualities and minimizing their negative aspects.
32. Ostrich Effect- The inclination for people to not learn from their mistakes and ignore information that may make them look bad.
33. Pluralistic Ignorance Effect-It is the tendency for people not to know the opinions of others in a group.
This happens because they are afraid that those who hold opposing views will dislike them for having differing opinions.
34. Post-Purchase Rationalization- The tendency for people to change their attitudes or beliefs to align with what they have purchased.
35. Reactance- It’s the tendency to do the opposite of what’s required of us. Most people do this to resist the control another person is trying to have over us.
36. Reinforcement Theory- The theory that rewarded behavior will continue, and behavior that is punished will decrease.
37. Scarcity Effect- We tend to value things more if we know that they are scarce or few of them available.
38. Status Quo Bias– It explains how people like things to stay the same even if they are clearly dysfunctional or irrational. It’s a false belief that things should be the way they are.
39. Sunk Cost Fallacy-This is the tendency to stick with a decision or course of action because we have invested time, money, or effort into it.
40. Learned Helplessness- The theory that learned behavior can cause a person to feel helpless because they expect the situation in which they are placed will turn out badly
41. Backfire Effect- When a person’s efforts to convince someone else of the correctness of their position actually cause that person to believe the opposite.
42. Futuristic Bias- People tend to overestimate how the future will be similar to the present.
43. Groupthink- A phenomenon in which cohesion within a group causes the group members to ignore any alternatives and reach a poor decision.
44. The paradox of Choice-The theory that the more options there are, the harder it is for us to make decisions.
45. Herbert Simon Effect- People tend to have over-confidence in their predictions of the future.
46. Social Comparison Theory- This is the perception that our attitudes, abilities, or achievements are superior to others.
47. Superiority Bias- It shows our tendency to overestimate the extent of our positive qualities and underestimate our negative qualities.
48. Star Syndrome- The theory that celebrities, sports stars, and politicians are over-estimated compared to their true ability.
49. Valence Effect– This is the tendency for people to value potential rewards more than potential punishments.
50. Self-serving Bias- It happens when you either favor oneself or disfavor others in attributions of causality.
It’s also the tendency to claim more responsibility for successes than failures.
51. General Attribution Error– People tend to overestimate the extent to which internal, dispositional factors are responsible for successes.
They also underestimate the role of outside, situational factors in causing those successes.
52. Gambler’s fallacy– This is the tendency for people to think that patterns of wins and losses are less random than they actually are.
53. Over justification Effect– When a person changes their attitudes or behaviors, not because they say they do but because of their rewards.
54. Wishful Thinking– When people incorrectly believe that their desires have caused a positive outcome, such as predicting an investment will perform well because they hope it will.
55. Artificial Ignorance- People tend to be biased about the information they have not learned, experienced, or sounds unfamiliar.
Inattentional Blindness: This happens when people fail to notice important things in their environment because they are focused on something else.
56. Knowledge Illusion- Our tendency to overestimate what we know relative to other people
57. Planning Fallacy- People underestimate how much time, money, and other resources it will take to complete a task.
58. Disposition Effect– The tendency to sell an asset that has appreciated for a quick profit rather than hold the investment. It’s when we sell something for a higher price than we paid.
59. Market Illusion- The tendency to perceive the stock market as more predictable than it really is and to be overconfident in one’s ability to pick stocks.
60. Loss Aversion-The tendency for people to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains.
You can also check out 4 Essay Examples On Life Is Beautiful || Structure of Research Summary Plus Tips on Writing an Excellent Research Summary with 2 Examples || How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay Plus 3 Best Examples
61. Loss Framing- This is the tendency to judge a potential gain or loss relative to a reference point rather than on its own merits.
62. Ludic Fallacy– The tendency to assume that a hypothetical situation is analogous to reality will result in the same outcome.
63. Product placement illusion- This happens when people overestimate the amount of product placement they perceive in popular culture.
64. Pollyanna Principle- It’s the tendency to attribute others’ behaviors and dispositions positively while attributing our negative behaviors and dispositions to outside factors.
65. Mere-exposure effect- People tend to develop a preference for things merely because they have become familiar with them.
66. Overconfidence effect– This happens when people overestimate their abilities in areas where they have no objective measure of their performance.
67. Overjustification Effect- It’s the tendency to devalue an incentive offered for engaging in a behavior that was already planned.
68. Belief-value Asymmetry- We tend to ascribe a higher value to obtaining information than avoiding misinformation.
69. Confirmation bias- The tendency to search for, interpret, focus on, and remember information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs. People seek information and accept arguments supporting their preexisting beliefs and ignore or reject information that opposes them.
70. Conjunction fallacy- This is the tendency to assume that specific conditions are more probable than general ones.
How to Avoid the Negative Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
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.
For example, suppose you wake up in the morning before a job interview and think that your interview will be a total bust.
In that case, you might enter the interview room with a negative attitude, look hesitant, have low confidence in your skills, and may sound unprepared or inconsistent when you answer questions.
How can you avoid fulfilling the prophecy of a disastrous interview? Asking yourself why you think you will perform poorly is a good start.
As a result of this effect, people tend to demand much more to give up an object than they would be willing to pay to acquire it.
If you determine the underlying reason for your beliefs, you might be able to address them on time.
In the long term, working towards improving your self-confidence and self-worth may help you avoid having negative thoughts about yourself, thus preventing negative self-fulfilling prophecies from becoming new realities.
Similarly, our self-fulfilling prophecies may also affect other people or change the fabric of society by strengthening negative opinions and biases against certain individuals or populations.
We can avoid these negative self-fulfilling prophecies by recognizing what is prejudice and what is an accurate observation.
We can accomplish this by educating ourselves and others around us and questioning the validity of opinions by requesting evidence or more information.
Related FAQs
1. How to fulfill your personal prophecy?
- Evaluate
- Judge
- Interpret
- Apply the prophecy to your everyday life
2. Is technical analysis a self fulfilling prophecy?
The self-fulfilling prophecy. Technical Analysis could be considered a case of self-fulfilling prophecy, referring to the fact that the more people approaching markets with the same analytical methods, the more likely the expected move in price occurs. This is a common argument that points out the lack of a proven thesis.
Read More
A Page will cost you $12, however, this varies with your deadline.
We have a team of expert nursing writers ready to help with your nursing assignments. They will save you time, and improve your grades.
Whatever your goals are, expect plagiarism-free works, on-time delivery, and 24/7 support from us.
Here is your 15% off to get started.
Simply:
- Place your order (Place Order)
- Click on Enter Promo Code after adding your instructions
- Insert your code – Get20
All the Best,
Cathy, CS
