Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Mechanisms, Power, and Links to Social Problems

A core theme of social psychology is that perceivers can shape targets’ future behaviors through self-fulfilling prophecies. Self-fulfilling prophecies occur when perceivers’ false beliefs about targets initiate a sequence of events that ultimately cause targets to exhibit expectancy-consistent behaviors, thereby causing perceivers’ initially false beliefs to become true. This article reviews theory and research relevant to self-fulfilling prophecies with particular foci on the underlying mechanisms that produce self-fulfilling prophecies, the power of self-fulfilling prophecies to alter behavior, and the extent to which self-fulfilling prophecies contribute to social problems. Psychology has long emphasized the power of beliefs to shape reality (e.g., Klein & Snyder, 2003; Merton, 1948; Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968; Snyder, 1984, 1992; Snyder & Stukas, 1999). The emphasis on the construction of social reality has roots in New Look in Perception research of the 1940s and 1950s which promoted the idea that perception is heavily influenced by people’s goals, needs, fears, and motives. The self-fulfilling prophecy is central to this theoretical perspective because it involves the behavioral confirmation of false beliefs (Merton, 1948). In this article, we discuss the self-fulfilling prophecy, beginning first with its definition followed by a brief discussion of its history within the social sciences. We then discuss three issues that have driven much of the research in the area. These issues pertain to underlying mechanisms of self-fulfilling prophecies, the power of self-fulfilling prophecies to alter behavior, and the extent to which self-fulfilling prophecies contribute to social problems.