Have you ever made predictions about yourself that later came true? You’re no master of fate, but sometimes you’ll find it surprising how accurate you can be.
It’s not a superpower, but a phenomenon called a self-fulfilling prophecy. Simply put, something happens because you believe it will.
What Is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?
A self-fulfilling prophecy is any expectation about a situation or event that causes itself to come true. The name was coined by Robert Merton in 1948 who described this concept as:
“A false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true”
Let’s take a student who thinks they’ll flunk a class before the semester ends. Since they believe they’re going to fail anyway, they stop listening to lectures, stop attending class, and don’t take the exams seriously.
Or maybe an office worker thinks they’ll get the promotion they want. In preparation for the role, they ace their metrics, attend leadership seminars, and help out with administrative tasks.
Both of their predictions come true because of their actions and attitudes, which come from their initial beliefs. Think of it as a circular sequence of events:
How Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Work
Examples In Fiction
The self-fulfilling prophecy is a popular plot device in literature and film because it evokes a sense of irony and inevitability. No matter what a character does, something still happens—often because of their actions trying to prevent it in the first place.
Below is a list of fictional works that have used this concept, taken from the classics to more modern stories. Careful, spoilers ahead!
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus is prophecied to kill his father and marry his own mother. To prevent this, he flees from home and ends up in Thebes, where he takes over the throne and marries the previous king’s widow, Jocasta.
Unbeknownst to him, the prophecy has already come true. It’s one of the most well-known examples of a self-fulfilling prophecy, so much that the concept is also known as the “Oedipus effect.”
One Thousand and One Nights
One story contained within this collection is The Ruined Man Who Became Rich Again Through a Dream. In a dream, a man is told to leave Baghdad and travel to Cairo, where he will gain an immense fortune. He encounters misfortune on the way and ends up in jail, where he recounts his dream to a police officer.
The officer mocks him for believing and tells him a dream of his own about a treasure buried beneath a house. The man recognizes the house and promptly retrieves the treasure after being released from prison.
Macbeth
There are two self-fulfilling prophesies in Macbeth. First, the titular character encounters a trio of witches, who tell him he will be king but his best friend’s offspring will rule after him. He makes the first half true and strives to prevent the second to no avail.
Another is when he is warned by an apparition to “Beware Macduff!” He takes this as a sign of Macduff plotting against him and tries to kill him. He fails and the attempt motivates Macduff to go against him.
Harry Potter
Lord Voldemort believes that someone born on a certain day will have the power to destroy him. There are two possible babies: Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter.
Believing Harry to be the prophesied boy, he attempts to kill him before he grows up to be a threat. This results in Harry’s mother sacrificing herself and giving her son powers that he later takes advantage of to destroy Voldemort.
Star Wars
Anakin Skywalker begins having visions of his wife, Padme, dying. She assures him it was only a dream, but he can’t help feeling that what he saw will come to pass.
To prevent her death from happening, he goes as far as joining the Dark Side. He is consumed by it, which devastates Padme, makes her lose her will to live, and she dies after childbirth.
Doctor Who
In The Christmas Invasion special, the Doctor manages to turn away an alien invasion. However, the prime minister orders the leaving alien ship to be destroyed and threatens to consider him another enemy.
Furious, the Doctor tells her he can bring down her government with only six words (“Don’t you think she looks tired?”) and whispers them in someone’s ear. The stress of not knowing what he said, and the resulting media barrage from the invasion actually affect her health and get her kicked out of office.
Examples in Real Life
Here are a few examples of self-fulfilling prophecies that happen in real life.
Bank Runs
A bank run happens when a large number of clients fear that a bank will go bankrupt. They pull out their money to protect themselves.
As more and more people withdraw their money, the bank becomes unable to function, which inevitably results in bankruptcy.
Placebo Effect
In a controlled study for new medical treatments, patients are divided into two groups. One is given the new treatment, while the other is given a placebo (a fake treatment).
Those in the second group often exhibit improvements from their medical issues despite not being given any real remedy. Their belief in being treated leads to their recovery.
Stereotype Threat
Put simply, stereotype threat is a person’s fear that their actions or behavior will reinforce a negative idea about a group they belong to.
For example, a minority group is believed to be less intelligent than other social groups due to their reported scores in standardized tests. Members of this minority group internalize this view of them, which leads them to act and behave as such.
Related Terms
Below are a few concepts that are closely related, but not exactly the same as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Predestination Paradox
A predestination paradox is kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy that happens in reverse. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, someone sees into the future and tries to change it to no avail. However, in a predestination paradox, a character goes into the past to change something, only to be the reason it happens in the first place.
This happens in Terminator, where an advanced machine travels back in time to kill a woman whose unborn son will one day be the biggest threat to a hostile artificial intelligence ruling the future. A human soldier follows to stop it and ends up falling in love with the woman. Their relationship results in the birth of the AI’s biggest enemy.
Pygmalion Effect
The pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon where high expectations lead to improved performance and low expectations lead to worse.
Take a student who is known as intelligent and talented as an example. Influenced by other people’s expectations of them, they strive to rise to these expectations, thus fulfilling them. People’s subconscious treatment of them, from actions, behavior, and mood, may also be part of the reason why this happens.
Did you find this post useful? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- The Idiot Plot: Why Characters Often Make Dumb Decisions
- What Is Conceit in Literature? Definition and Examples
- The MacGuffin: What It Is and How to Spot One
- Chekhov’s Gun: The Art of Foreshadowing
Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
