Exploring Social Cognition

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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

What is a self-fulfiling prophecy?

Self-fufiling prophecies are predictions that directly or indirectly cause the prophecy to become factual.  Further more, it can also impact having an expectation about what another person is llike, which influences how they wil act toward that person, which causes that person to behave consistenly with people's original expectation.

For instance, a person stating "I'm going to probably have a bad day", might alter his/her actions so that the predictions is fulfilled by his/her actions.  This may or may not be an unconscious gesture.  The opposite may occur as well, a person stating "I'm going to have a great day", might alter his/her actions to fulfil the prophecy. 



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