WHAT IS SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY? (PSYCHOLOGY) - ARTE - 2025

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a false belief that, directly or indirectly, leads to its own fulfillment. This process involves three psychological events: having a false belief about someone, treating the person in a way that fits your false belief, and the person must respond to the treatment they receive by confirming the false belief.

It is the sociologist Robert K. Merton who coined the term "self-fulfilling prophecy" and formalized its structure and consequences. In his book Social Theory and Social Structure, Merton defines a self-fulfilling prophecy like this:

Example: When a wife believes that her marriage will fail, her fears cause that failure to be confirmed.

Therefore, a positive or negative prophecy (a strong belief or a delusion), declared to be true even if it is false, could influence a person enough that their reactions comply with that belief.

Relationship between false beliefs and self-fulfilling prophecies

A false belief is a belief that does not match a person's self - concept (what the person thinks of themselves). It can be positive or negative. For example, you may have the belief that a person is capable of doing or not doing something.

From the false belief, the person is treated in a way that coincides with it and the person may begin to respond to that treatment by confirming that belief. In turn, the person may begin to doubt herself or believe in herself, depending on the treatment she receives.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a powerful psychological effect when your expectations of someone else's abilities influence how that person views themselves.

Self-fulfilling prophecies began to be studied in the school setting. Robert Rosenthal (1973) examined how female teachers influenced school performance. He found that female teachers were likely to treat their students according to their beliefs:

"Creating a warm and friendly environment for students, giving them opportunities to develop their skills and providing feedback based on performance."

In Rosenthal's experiment, elementary teachers were told that three students had scored higher than the others on aptitude tests. They were also told not to treat them differently.

At the end of the year, the tests were passed again and those three students scored above the others. The interesting thing is that in the initial aptitude test the three indicated students had scored like the rest of the students.

Why do other people's false beliefs influence how we see ourselves?

According to the Theory of Self-Verification (Swann, 1987), people have a basic desire to confirm their self-concepts, including the way they see themselves. They also want to find harmony between their perceptions and the new information that comes to them.

This theory suggests that it is existentially pleasing to confirm self-concept, even if it is negative; the person would feel congruent when observing that her perception coincides with that of other people.

For example, we verify other people's false beliefs by acting on them, and this gives us a firm sense of identity. We try to live according to a role / function.

Application of self-fulfilling prophecies

Although there are many applications, some of them are:

Education

If teachers believe their students are gifted, they will act to fulfill their beliefs and children will end up learning more and doing better.

It is a concept that has already been widely used in the United States with the War on Poverty.

sports

If a coach has the belief that a player can perform well and is skilled, he will behave in a way that will lead the player to fulfill that belief.

Performance and personal life

As in the example of the wife, we can make positive prophecies so that there are more chances of positive results.

"When some children are randomly selected and their teachers are told that in the coming months they will improve a lot intellectually, they do." -Rosenthal, 1985.

Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by paralyzing our will to act. »-Howard Zinn.