Self-fulfilling prophecies

Abstract

People typically enter their social interactions with preconceived beliefs and expectations about how other people will act and they often use these beliefs as guides for their own actions with these others. These actions, in turn, may prompt their interaction partners to behave in ways that confirm the initial beliefs. This phenomenon, in which belief creates reality, has been demonstrated for a wide variety of expectations. In this article, we review the extensive research literature, identifying the moderators and mediators that explain when and why self-fulfilling prophecies occur, as well as the practical and theoretical implications of these effects.