It is a psychological phenomenon in which the existence of an individual’s preexisting expectations of others unintentionally leads to the confirmation of those expectations. It was proposed by American sociologist Robert Merton in 1948. A self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation effect, which often occurs in real life. For example, if an older person believes in advance that a young person is reckless, he may treat the young person in a negative manner, causing the young person to commit actual negative behavior to the older person.
Self-fulfilling prophecies have been proved by many psychological experiments and educational practices. Studies have shown that the halo effect can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. Compared with less attractive people, beautiful people will form a more positive two-way interaction because they are treated positively and friendly. Some scholars have studied the self-realization prophecy in the school education scenario many times. Robert Rosenthal and...
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Further Reading
Aronson E, Wilson TD, Akert RM (2014) Social psychology, 8th edn. Pearson India Education Services, Chennai
Yue G-A (2013) Social psychology, 2nd edn. China Renmin University Press, Bei**g
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Bin, Z. (2024). Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. In: The ECPH Encyclopedia of Psychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6000-2_370-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6000-2_370-1
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