Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A bank has strong financial footing. One rumor begins to spread that the bank is incapable of covering its deposits, panic ensues, and depositors around the world withdraw their money all at once before the bank loses all of its cash. But the bank was actually doing fine, and the originally false belief led to its own fulfillment. Psychologists like to call this term self-fulfilling prophecy. 

The phrase was originally coined by Robert K. Merton, a sociologist who also developed ideas like social structure and the modes of individual adaptation. He used the classic bank run example to show how self-fulfilling thoughts can make unwanted situations occur. Self-fulfilling prophecies often occur when inaccurate social stereotypes may lead to their actual occurrence. Early research on this concept examined whether teachers’ false expectations or archetypes for their students caused students to achieve at levels consistent with those initial expectations. Research supports that those teachers’ expectations are self-fulfilling. 

The process can lead to negative cycles, like self-sabotage due to low self-esteem, or positive cycles, like the Pygmalion effect, where believing someone will succeed causes you to treat them in a way that helps them thrive. It is important to understand self-fulfilling prophecies to better grasp interpersonal relationships and connections. Once society becomes aware of self-fulfilling prophecies, we can identify patterns of thoughts and actions, and reframe our language to work toward growth mindsets.