The Accumulation of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Effects Across Perceivers

当人们的错误信念塑造了他人的行为时，自我实现的预言就会发生。例如，如果一个人被引导相信另一个人是不友好的，他/她可能会以这样的方式行事，实际上引发不友好的行为。虽然自我实现的预言在历史上被描述为一个强大的过程，能够产生深刻的社会问题，但现在已经确定，它对行为的影响是温和的。然而，这些适度的影响与二元关系中自我实现预言的力量有关。二元关系可能低估了自我实现预言对行为的影响程度，因为它们没有考虑到自我实现预言效应在人群中累积的可能性。在一个典型的日子里，一个人可能会与许多人互动，每个人都可能对这个人持有错误的信念，并对这个人的行为产生自我实现的影响。当不同的人对同一个人持有的错误信念相似时，它们的独立自我实现效应可能会联合收割机，从而导致小的自我实现预言效应变大。这项研究将通过做出以下贡献来推进关于自我实现预言效应在人群中积累的潜力的知识。首先，实验将提供积累假设的第一个实验测试，并将研究积累是如何发生的（即，效果是否累加和/或相互作用）。其次，实验将检查基于个人特征的信念的累积效应（例如，“根据这个性格调查，这个人是敌对的”）和基于刻板印象的信念的积累效应（例如，“这张照片中的人很有吸引力，因此也很善于交际”）。第三，实验将操纵变量，使研究人员能够解决自我实现预言效应的积累有多普遍，由不利信念引起的自我实现效应是否比由有利信念引起的效应在人群中积累更多，以及个体对他人以刻板方式看待他们的看法是否影响积累过程。最终，这一系列研究可能会深入了解自我实现的预言效应与社会问题之间的联系，如刻板印象和偏见。因为刻板印象是共享的，所以不同人基于刻板印象的信念对个体行为的个体自我实现效应可能会积累起来。事实上，这是自我实现的预言被认为是导致社会不平等的方式之一。为了增强这项研究的更广泛影响，研究人员将从代表性不足的群体中招募学生，促进学生参与研究过程，并广泛传播研究结果。

A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when people's false beliefs shape the behavior of others. For example, if one person is led to believe that another person is unfriendly, he/she may act in such a way to actually elicit unfriendly behavior. Although the self-fulfilling prophecy has historically been characterized as a powerful process capable of producing profound social problems, it is now established that its effects on behavior are modest. However, these modest effects pertain to the power of self-fulfilling prophecies within dyadic relationships. Dyadic relationships may underestimate the true extent to which self-fulfilling prophecies shape behavior because they do not account for the possibility that self-fulfilling prophecy effects may accumulate across people. In a typical day, an individual may interact with many people, each of whom may hold a false belief about that individual, and have a self-fulfilling effect on that individual's behavior. When the false beliefs that different people hold about the same individual are similar, their independent self-fulfilling effects may combine, thereby causing small self-fulfilling prophecy effects to become large. This research will advance knowledge regarding the potential for self-fulfilling prophecy effects to accumulate across people by making the following contributions. First, the experiments will provide the first experimental tests of the accumulation hypothesis, and will examine how accumulation occurs (i.e., whether the effects add up and/or interact with each other). Second, the experiments will examine the accumulation effects of beliefs that are based on personal characteristics (e.g., "According to this personality survey, this person is hostile") and the accumulation effects of beliefs that are based on stereotypes (e.g., "The person in this picture is attractive and therefore sociable as well"). Third, the experiments will manipulate variables that will enable the investigators to address how pervasive the accumulation of self-fulfilling prophecy effects are, whether the self-fulfilling effects caused by unfavorable beliefs accumulate across people more than the effects caused by favorable beliefs, and whether individuals' perceptions that others view them in a stereotypic manner influence the accumulation process. Ultimately this line of research may provide insight into the link between self-fulfilling prophecy effects and social problems, such as stereotypes and prejudice. Because stereotypes are shared, it is possible that the individual self-fulfilling effects of different people's stereotype-based beliefs on an individual's behavior accumulate. Indeed, this is one of the ways that self-fulfilling prophecies are thought to contribute to social inequalities. To enhance the broader impact of this research, the investigators will recruit students from under-represented groups, foster students' engagement in the research process, and disseminate the findings broadly.