Self-fulfilling prophecy in psychology

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a process that leads to actions confirming that a previously held false belief is true. 

Essentially, in a self-fulfilling prophecy, expectations influence behavior consistent with the expectations.

The self-fulfilling prophecy is also called the Pygmalion Effect and the Rosenthal Effect.

Pygmalion Effect  or  Rosenthal Effect

Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobsen studied teacher expectations in an experiment. False information about one group of students led to measurable improvements. The self-fulfilling prophecy was called the Pygmalion effect.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 

Robert K. Merton defines a self-fulfilling prophecy as a false definition of a situation, which causes a behavior that, in turn, makes the initial false conception come true. As a general representation of a specific relation between beliefs and reality, the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy is useful to describe and analyze manifold kinds of psychological and social phenomena. Broadly speaking, we can say that the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy highlights the huge power of our conceptual frameworks and beliefs: they not only shape the way in which we see the reality, but they can also determine the reality itself. [Bold emphasis added] Source: (Martire, 2017, December 4)

Self-fulfilling prophecy  and  confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is a cognitive bias, which focuses on evidence supporting personal beliefs and ignoring disconfirming evidence. Biased beliefs can lead to false expectations, which may influence actions so that the expected behavior comes true.

Examples of self-fulfilling prophecy

The placebo effect is one example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Educators' expectations about the high or low abilities of students may influence how well students perform. See the Pygmalion Effect and Rosenthal above.

Experimenter bias can lead to expected performance of research subjects. For example, rats randomly assigned to "bright" or "dull" conditions performed differently based on the descriptive label. See Rosenthal & Fode (1963).

The biased interrogation of suspects considered guilty may bring innocent people to the point of a false confession of a crime. See Kassin et al. (2003).

Supervisors may influence production based on expectations of workers.

Group stereotypes may be validated when the people in the group are treated by influential people based on false belief-based expectations of a group.

Who holds expectations?

Most of us have expectations about ourselves and others. Expectations can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies.

Consider students new to a school where they have a few different teachers. The list of people with expectations could be overwhelming if they are highly discrepant.

Here's a hypothetical list of people who may express expectation and thereby create a self-fulfilling prophecy for students.

   Parent 1

   Parent 2

  Teacher 1

  Teacher 2

  Teacher 3

  Teacher 4

  Coach or similar leader 

  Close friend 1

  Close friend 2

and finally,

  The Student

Religious children may add more people conveying expectations about their behavior.

For example:

  Perception of God's expectations

  Clergy or church leader's expectations

  

Emotions

Self-fulfilling prophecies can be linked to powerful feelings.

Sometimes there is the joy of success.

Sometimes there is the sadness that come with "not measuring up."

Sometimes there's anger and frustration.

Managing expectations can be exasperating.

Sometimes a child or an adult needs help dealing with unrealistic expectations before they turn into a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.

References

Kassin, S. M., Goldstein, C. C., and Savitsky, K. (2003). Behavioral confirmation in the interrogation room: On the dangers of presuming guilt. Law and Human Behavior 27, 187-203.

Merton, R. K. (1948). The Self-Fulfilling prophecy. Antioch Review, 8, 193-210.
https://doi.org/10.2307/4609267

Rosenthal, R. and Fode, K. L. (1963). The effect of experimenter bias on the performance of the albino rat. Behavioral Science 8, 183-189.

Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils' intellectual development. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Stukas, A. A., & Snyder, M. (2016). Self-fulfilling prophecies. In H. S. Friedman (Ed), Encyclopedia of mental health (2nd edition, Vol. 4, pp. 92-100). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

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Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice is a negative feeling or attitude toward an individual or class of people based on assumptions about the cultural group to which they are assigned based on some presumed feature of the people in that group.

Prejudice involves an evaluation process directed at a social group and therefore, toward the members of that group. There is a negative emotional component to the evaluation.

Discrimination is a negative action toward a person because of their association with a particular group. Acts of discrimination include avoiding, excluding, and ignoring people. Discrimination also involves biased treatment of group members.

ABC theory of discrimination

The ABC theory of discrimination describes the connections among the three concepts of stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination. A represents affect or the emotional component, which is prejudice. B represents behavior, which is an act of discrimination. C represents cognition. Stereotypes are cognitive beliefs. 

The combination of a negative stereotype and the negative feelings of prejudice lead to acts of discrimination under certain conditions.

Discrimination functions to promote the groups with which we identify. We feel connected to the members of our group, which results in a favorable ingroup bias. We tend to think our group is better than other groups and treat members of other groups less favorably than our own. In short, we tend to discriminate. 

Scapegoating is blaming an outgroup for a problem our ingroup has experienced.

Self-fulfilling prophecy can occur when one group treats another based on a stereotype. Then the stereotyped person begins to act in the way they were treated, which confirms the stereotype.

Reducing Prejudice

Some research supports the value of social contact and diversity within schools in reducing ethnic prejudice according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) (www.equalityhumanrights.com).

Persuasive messages in public media have not been effective in reducing prejudice according to EHRC. Sometimes messages backfire by increasing prejudice among people who were ambivalent in their feelings toward an outgroup before reading the message.

Values that are widely accepted are treated as fact and are often not questioned.

Diversity training research suggests a negative outcome when people are confronted with their own prejudices become angry and defensive or feel guilty and avoid the issue (Pendry et al., 2007 cited in the EHRC report).

Empathy and perspective-taking may be helpful. Students who were asked to take the perspective of the elderly reduced stereotypes.  A study of Walking Through White Privilege, which describes the advantages of the white majority risks increasing resentment and social distance between groups. The advantaged group can be limited in progress by their guilt and/or anger. The minority group may strengthen their views of the inequality and discrimination in society (EHRC).

Awareness programs such as using the Implicit Association Test have been a problem because participants have difficulty understanding the results. In addition, psychologists question exactly what the test measures.

A bottom line is that programs are likely to fail when participants are not motivated.

 EHRC report address: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/research-report-56-processes-of-prejudice-theory-evidence-and-intervention.pdf 

Related Books

The Psychology of Prejudice: From Attitudes to Social Action by Lynne Jackson (2019)

The Cost of Racism for People of Color: Contextualizing Experiences of Discrimination by Alvin Alvarez et al. (2016)

Perspectives on Hate: How It Originates, Develops, Manifests, and Spreads by Robert Sternberg (2020)

Criminality in Context: The Psychological Foundations of Criminal Justice Reform

by Craig Haney (2020)

Sutton, G. W. (2020). Counseling and psychotherapy with Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians: Culture & Research | Assessment & Practice. Springfield, MO: Sunflower.  ISBN-13 : 979-8681036524 AMAZON  See chapters 7 and 8.

See also a related concept

Psychology of Stereotypes

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Psychology of crisscrossing

Crisscrossing refers to people who are viewed as being members of more than one group. The group may be a recognized social group (e.g., religious, political) or a social category of people (e.g., ethnic, age, gender categories).

Crisscrossing helps reduce some forms of discrimination aimed at people who are members of an outgroup or low prestige category.

A member of a disparaged outgroup may become appreciated if the person is also a member of a socially valued group such as medical doctors or military heroes.

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Psychology of Stereotypes

A stereotype is a cognition composed of generalized images, beliefs, and feelings about the characteristics of members of a group or a socially constructed category.

Stereotypes typically rely on salient features based on experience with group members or shared by those in one's culture. Stereotypes usually ignore the variety of features true of people in a group.

Stereotypes are usually negative but positive stereotypes exist. It is very difficult to change a stereotype.

Group stereotypes
Group stereotypes are those cognitions that consider all members of a recognized group to have the same characteristics. Commonly recognized groups can include religions (e.g., Christians, Jews, Muslims), political parties (e.g., Republicans, Democrats), organizations (e.g., Red Cross, ACLU), businesses, and nations (e.g., Americans, Germans), Race (e.g., Blacks, Whites), Ethnicity (e.g., Mexican American, Native American).

People may hold separate stereotypes about the people in various subgroups (e.g., Catholics, Methodists).

Socially constructed category stereotypes
Socially constructed category stereotypes are stereotypes that people apply to categories of people, which may be based on one or a few features. Social categories often include demographic characteristics like age categories (seniors, adolescents), gender categories (women, men, gays, lesbians), ethnic categories (e.g, Whites, Blacks, Caucasians, Native Americans), social values (liberals, conservatives).

Research on stereotypes

Research on stereotypes is relevant to understanding intergroup behavior. Tajfel (1982) adopts the definition of stereotype offered by Stallybrass (1977).

"…an over-simplified mental image of (usually) some category of person, institution or event which is shared, in essential features, by large numbers of people... Stereotypes are commonly, but not necessarily, accompanied by prejudice, i.e. by a favorable or unfavorable predisposition toward any member of the category in question ("p .601).

Stereotypes develop from salient characteristics, which then become an available heuristic assumed to apply to a group as a whole. People can become category prototypes. Leaders in politics, organizations, or religion are seen as holding representative views and traits of their groups.

A solo status phenomenon occurs when a person or a few people stand out as different from the rest of the group. Their characteristics then become exaggerated in both positive and negative ways. For example, a black worker in a group of white workers or a woman in a men’s work group.

Research on illusory correlations is also relevant to stereotyping. When a minority perform a behavior, there is an assumption that all members of the minority perform the same behavior.

Books on Stereotypes

Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do 

Books on Social Psychology

Social Psychology by Sommers

References

Stallybrass, O. (1977). Stereotype. In The Fontana dictionary of modern thought, A. Bullock, O. Stallybrass (Eds.)., p. 601. London: Fontana/Collins.

See the 2000 edition of  The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought

Tajfel, H. (1982). Social psychology of intergroup relations. Annual Review of Psychology, 33, 1-39.

Connections

My Page    www.suttong.com

  

My Books  AMAZON                       GOOGLE STORE

FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton

TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton

PINTEREST  www.pinterest.com/GeoffWSutton

Publications (many free downloads)

 

Academia   Geoff W Sutton   (PhD)     

  ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton   (PhD)