The Accumulation of Stereotype-Based Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes © 2018 American Psychological Association 2018, Vol. 115, No. 5, 825–844 0022-3514/18/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000142 The Accumulation of Stereotype-Based Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Stephanie Madon Lee Jussim Iowa State University Rutgers University Max Guyll Heather Nofziger and Elizabeth R. Salib Iowa State University Rutgers University Jennifer Willard Kyle C. Scherr Kennesaw State University Central Michigan University A recurring theme in the psychological literature is that the self-fulfilling effect of stereotypes can accumulate across perceivers. This article provides the first empirical support for this long-standing hypothesis. In three experiments (Ns ϭ 123–241), targets more strongly confirmed a stereotype as the number of perceivers who held stereotypic expectations about them increased. A fourth experiment (N ϭ 121) showed that new perceivers judged targets according to the stereotypic behaviors they had previously been channeled to adopt, an effect that even occurred among perceivers who were privy to the fact that targets’ behavior had been shaped by the actions of others. The authors discuss ways in which these effects may contribute to group inequalities. Keywords: accumulation, behavioral confirmation, self-fulfilling prophecy, stereotypes Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000142.supp New Look in Perception of the 1940s and 1950s initiated a cumulate across perceivers. Moreover, it tested this hypothesis revolution in approaches to perception within social psychology. with respect to stereotypes, which psychological theory proposes Departing from the prevailing view that perception is veridical, contribute to group inequalities through their cumulative self- New Look in Perception research promoted the idea that percep- fulfilling effects. tion is influenced by the goals, needs, and motives of perceivers. An influential perspective that emerged from this movement was a Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and Their weak form of social constructionism. According to this perspec- Cumulative Effects tive, social beliefs can alter reality and shape behavior. The self- The idea that false expectations can lead to their own fulfillment fulfilling prophecy is central to this perspective because it involves originated in the writings of Merton (1948). Merton proposed that a perceiver’s false expectation about a target initiating a sequence the self-fulfilling prophecy was a powerful process capable of of events that causes the target to exhibit expectancy-consistent producing profound social problems including war, economic behavior, thereby making the initially false expectation true. This downturns, academic underachievement, and racial disparities in research tested a core tenet of social constructionism within social employment and wealth. Research bearing on Merton’s analysis psychology—the idea that self-fulfilling prophecy effects can ac- clearly supported the existence of self-fulfilling prophecies, but not This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. the idea that self-fulfilling prophecy effects are powerful. Both This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. experimental and naturalistic research have converged on the con- clusion that perceivers’ false expectations have only modest self- Stephanie Madon, Psychology Department, Iowa State University; Lee fulfilling effects on the behavior of targets (Jussim, 2012; Jussim, Psychology Department, Rutgers University; Max Guyll, Psychol- Rosenthal, 1994, 2003). However, these modest effects should not ogy Department, Iowa State University; Heather Nofziger and Elizabeth R. be interpreted to mean that self-fulfilling prophecies can never be Salib, Psychology Department, Rutgers University; Jennifer Willard, Psy- powerful. Even small self-fulfilling prophecy effects can become chology Department, Kennesaw State University; Kyle C. Scherr, Psychol- powerful if they accumulate across perceivers (e.g., Jussim, ogy Department, Central Michigan University. Eccles, & Madon, 1996; Klein & Snyder, 2003; Madon, Guyll, Heather Nofziger is now at The NPD Group. Elizabeth R. Salib is now at Heidrick Consulting. Spoth, & Willard, 2004; Merton, 1948). Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Stephanie The potential for self-fulfilling prophecy effects to accumulate Madon, Psychology Department, Iowa State University, W112 Lagomar- across perceivers represents a central theme within social psychol- cino Hall, 901 Stange Road, Ames, IA 50011-1041. E-mail: madon@ ogy (Ross, Lepper, & Ward, 2010). Yet, only one study has iastate.edu empirically supported the hypothesized effect. In the context of a 825 826 MADON ET AL. longitudinal study involving parents and their adolescent children, the educational opportunities available to disadvantaged students, Madon et al. (2004) found that adolescents drank the greatest thereby undermining those students’ academic achievement. These amount of alcohol when mothers and fathers both held negative examples illustrate how perceivers’ treatment of targets can con- expectations about their future alcohol use. However, because struct situational affordances that encourage targets to behaviorally Madon et al. demonstrated this effect with correlational data, they confirm a stereotype. could not rule out predictive accuracy as an alternative explanation The potential for a stereotype’s self-fulfilling effect to accumu- of the findings. Put differently, their data could not exclude the late across perceivers arises when multiple perceivers provide possibility that parents’ negative expectations were accurate from similar situational affordances to the same target. For example, the outset, in which case they could not have been self-fulfilling, consider a scenario in which two educators independently provide a limitation that characterizes all correlational self-fulfilling proph- a female student with a situational affordance that encourages ecy research. confirmation of sex stereotypes: A math teacher inappropriately The only way to eliminate predictive accuracy as an alternative tracks her into a low-ability math class, and a guidance counselor to a self-fulfilling prophecy interpretation is to experimentally encourages her to take home economics or typing as the required manipulate perceivers’ expectations. Accordingly, there is a need elective, never suggesting alternatives such as computer program- to examine the accumulation of self-fulfilling prophecy effects ming or woodshop. Although these situational affordances do not across perceivers in tightly controlled laboratory experiments. It is prevent the student from excelling in math or enrolling in a especially important to examine this process with respect to ste- male-dominated elective, they will tend to channel her in the reotypes, which for 70 years have been hypothesized to contribute direction of confirming sex stereotypes. Moreover, because two to group inequalities via their cumulative self-fulfilling effects educators each constructed the situation in this way, the overall (Jussim et al., 1996; Klein & Snyder, 2003; Merton, 1948; Word, effect on the student stands to be greater than if only one educator Zanna, & Cooper, 1974). had done so. This is because multiple perceivers who share, and There is good evidence that stereotypes can have self-fulfilling independently act upon, a false expectation generate multiple effects on targets’ behavior (Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid, 1977; vectors of influence that can combine to shape the totality of the Word et al., 1974). However, research demonstrating this effect situation faced by a target in a way that more strongly affords has focused exclusively on dyadic relations involving one per- behavioral confirmation of a stereotype than is the case with only ceiver and one target. Although this focus is often warranted, it one perceiver. may underestimate the power of stereotypes because it does not account for the possibility that their self-fulfilling effects may Research Overview accumulate across multiple perceivers. Specifically, because stereotypes can be consensual, different perceivers may hold similar The primary objective of the present research was to test the expectations about members of stereotyped groups (Madon et al., hypothesis that the self-fulfilling effects of stereotypes can accu- 2001). To the extent that these expectations are false for a partic- mulate across perceivers. Experiment 1 tested this hypothesis with ular target, each perceiver may have a self-fulfilling effect that respect to the overweight stereotype, whereas Experiments 2 and 3 combines with the self-fulfilling effects of other perceivers to tested this hypothesis with respect to sex stereotypes. Consistent ultimately cause a target to confirm the stereotype more strongly with classic considerations of the self-fulfilling prophecy, the than would have been the case had only one perceiver held the experiments focused on situational affordances as the underlying false stereotypic expectation. mechanism of the hypothesized accumulation effect. Experiment 4 tested whether targets’ confirmatory behavior—behavior that was Situational Affordances caused by a stereotype’s prior cumulative self-fulfilling effect— influences new perceivers’ judgments of them. This issue is im- One mechanism through

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