You are what you Wear: An Interactive Demonstration of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Abstract

This article presents evidence in support of an interactive classroom activity that demonstrates the self-fulfilling prophecy. After a brief description of the topic, 5 volunteers from an introductory psychology course of 81 students blindly donned one of several labeled hats (i.e., intelligent, attractive, good leader, annoying, lazy). The instructor told volunteers to treat each other in accordance with the labels while they completed a series of group tasks. During the task, volunteers acted in accordance with their label, thereby confirming the self-fulfilling prophecy. Findings indicated that the demonstration does elicit the self-fulfilling prophecy and that students' understanding of this phenomenon improves. Furthermore, students overwhelmingly reported that this demonstration was interesting and enjoyable and recommended its use in future classes.