Have you ever predicted something about your life that has come true? Even if you don’t consider yourself a fortuneteller, you’ve probably noticed that your predictions sometimes turn out to be accurate.
In other words, you may have a feeling that a project you are working on will turn out exceptionally well, and be confident in your ability to envision the future when your hard work pays off and your project is positively received.
As another example, you might expect a speech you have to give at a work event to go poorly, and therefore you do not feel surprised if you stutter, mumble, and forget your next point while speaking.
Even though you might see these examples as proof that you know yourself and your abilities quite well (and this can be true), you may not consider how your expectations influence your behavior.
Self-fulfilling prophecies occur when our beliefs and expectations influence our behavior at the subconscious level.
What is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?
Self-fulfilling prophecies are beliefs or expectations that an individual holds about a future event that manifests because the individual holds them (Good Therapy, 2015).
For instance, if you wake up thinking that today will be a terrible day, your attitude might make your prediction come true. Unconsciously, you may ignore the positive, magnify the negative, and behave in ways that do not contribute to making your day enjoyable.
Many examples of this concept can be found in literature, as well as in culture and art.
From the Greek story of Oedipus we have a classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The father of Oedipus, Laius, is warned in the story that his son will eventually kill him. In order to avoid this fate, he abandons his son and leaves him to die.
A foster family raised Oedipus under the assumption that they were his real parents. His mother also warned him one day that he would kill his father and marry her widowed mother. Oedipus, of course, has no desire to kill the man he believes is his father or marry the woman he believes is his mother, so he abandons his foster home and heads off to the city.
A stranger he meets in the city ends up in a fight with him. Once Oedipus has killed the stranger, he marries the widow. His new bride turns out to be his mother, and the man he killed is actually his father. As Laius and Oedipus tried to avoid fate, their prophecies came true.
Self-fulfilling prophecies became popular in literature and film because of this tale, but they are also a well-researched concept in psychology.
How to use the positive power of Self-fulfilling Prophecies (or Placebo Effect) to get the best out of life? Click here to access the video tutorial
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in Psychology
Psychologists have discovered strong evidence that our beliefs and expectations affect outcomes, especially when we are convinced that our predictions will come true, even when we are unaware of the belief.
The placebo effect is a common example of a self-fulfilling prophecy in psychology (Isaksen, 2012). During scientific studies or clinical trials, the placebo effect refers to improvements in outcomes even when no meaningful treatment was given. The participants’ belief affects how they experience the “treatment.”
Clinical trials discovered this effect, which can be so powerful that new measures were put in place to account for its impact on experiment results. Studies of the placebo effect have shown that belief can be very powerful.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Origins
“Self-fulfilling prophecy” is a fascinating term coined by American sociologist Robert Merton back in 1948 — here’s the definition he gave it:
“A false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true”
See, most people know what a self-fulfilling prophecy is, but what we don’t know – or we don’t usually think about – is the extent to which this idea is affecting our results in each & every important area of our lives… Your health, the money you make (& keep), your relationships, your lifestyle & happiness… each & every one of these areas of our lives are strongly affected by this idea.
How to use the positive power of Self-fulfilling Prophecies (or Placebo Effect) to get the best out of life? Click here to access the video tutorial
Let’s Make Some Examples
Do you see yourself or someone you know in these?:
‘”I would like to be fitter & healthier… but it’s not going to happen for me.”
“I’ve always been overweight, so I know it’s not going to happen for me’’
“I’ve always been broke, so I always will be”
“I suck at relationships – always have, always will”
People say things like this all the time.
All of these statements are nonsense from the beginning. Does the fact that you are overweight, broke, in a difficult relationship, or unhappy in life, necessarily mean that it will always be that way? Of course not!
It doesn’t have to be… it’s not guaranteed. Things could change… you could change them. Which therefore means that this thinking initially untrue. It’s false. It’s a lie. Except: thinking this way often makes it so (a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy.’)
Let Me Better Explain
Because you believe you won’t be able to lose weight because you’ve “always been overweight,” the statement isn’t true, except, because you believe it, it becomes true.
With this thinking in mind, you might go on diets knowing that ‘they won’t work anyway’. You sign up for the gym but don’t go consistently. You don’t stick to the plan you created for yourself. You never take committed action when it comes to your health because deep down you don’t believe it would work anyway…
‘’Why would I bother putting in all this effort, if it’s going to fail again’’ you may have thought to yourself. Your motivation is low… As is your commitment… So your action is ‘half-assed’… Which of course shows little to no change in results. In the short run, this little bit of half-assed action might work – they could lose some pounds or so – but over time, this kind of belief won’t produce results. It’s the reason studies show 97% of dieters regain any weight they lose.
And so, 5 years later, you may still be overweight… You didn’t believe things would change… you didn’t take any committed action to create an alternative reality… hence, of course, things weren’t going to change for you!
Change requires focus, decision, commitment, intensity. However, because you believe that it wasn’t going to work out anyway, you didn’t have any of those ingredients in place.
It’s a little like when someone goes to look for something that they’ve lost, but think to themselves, ‘I’ve never going to find it anyway.’ Sure enough, they don’t find it. Then a friend, a partner, a parent o a family member goes to look & they find it very quickly. Why is this? Is it because your vision is worse than that of your friend, parent or partner? Perhaps.
But, the more likely explanation is that your seeking was ‘half-assed.’ You didn’t believe you were going to find it anyway, so you weren’t committed in your attempts to look for it. You looked, but you didn’t look as if your life depended on it.
Well, the same applies to any result we want to get – we often pursue these with the same belief & commitment that got us miserable results in the past. And that’s where the really dangerous part kicks in…
‘It’s no use… I’ve always been & always will be overweight,’ you said to yourself 5 years ago when you were starting. You reinforce your initially untrue belief to yourself after 5 years of the same low belief driving low level of activity.
You might tell yourself, ‘I knew it; I knew that I would always be overweight. I was right,’ and ignore the fact that you skipped key workout days & didn’t follow your diet plans, believing that you were correct.
Not, just you, this is everybody in part… It’s part of human nature… we form assumptions based on recency… And now you’ve reinforced your belief that you’ll ‘always be overweight.’ Let’s rewind: The belief that ‘because you were overweight before mean you’ll overweight in the future too’ was NOT true, to begin with. It was false.
Except, you believing it made it true! Repeat this cycle & you become less likely to question the belief in the first place. You stop wanting to change to begin with. You lose your fighting spirit. Your fire. Your ambition.
You end up stuck – trapped in a jail you created through your own mind. And that how untrue, false, misconceptions become true; this is how we ‘self-prophesize’ in our lives. That said, no matter what… the possibility still exists for great health & fitness (or another other outcome you want to achieve!)
The possibility never stops existing; it’s always there… But, to tap into it, you have to approach it in a new way than you’ve done before… you can’t repeat the same thinking that got you here. You must first change it… You must strike a strong sense of belief into your yourself & then use that to take focused, committed action – that’s the secret to lasting change & creating the results you want.
In Conclusion
In the future, when you catch yourself thinking in a particular way (as in the example above! ), you can use this awareness to change your thinking… to remind yourself of this as you change your belief & direction!
Additionally, thanks to this awareness, I hope you will set goals based not on what has happened in the past, but on what you truly desire in the future, knowing that the past is not indicative of the future (!)
A personal recommendation? there’s this great audio (free for you to download) where you’ll learn more on how to turn the power of self-fulfilling prophecies in your favor: click here to access
How to use the positive power of Self-fulfilling Prophecies (or Placebo Effect) to get the best out of life? Click here to access the video tutorial
