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Self-fulfilling Prophecy

How to succeed more in life just by believing it.


Reading time: 2 minutes


How many times have you heard someone telling you you had to believe you could do it to actually make it? The common answer is: a lot.


People might not know the science behind it but the truth is that they are right. In psychology this is called the self-fulfilling prophecy or Rosenthal Effect.

This phenomenon suggests that beliefs can influence actions and consequently results.

Let's see an example together: Mike thinks that he has great potential to get a high mark on the next Math test. Following his belief he will subconsciously study a little harder than his classmates. When he gets the test back he realizes he is on the top 10% of his class, this result is going to fuel more the belief that he is very gifted in that subject.


The self-fulfilling prophecy not only works with ourselves, but also when we interact with other people.

Dr. Rosenthal made this phenomenon more popular thanks to his experiments at school. He proved that teacher expectations on the students' performance deeply affected the way students actually performed. High expectations lead to better results, low expectations lead to worse results, no matter how intelligent the student was.


Practically by thinking that you are going to shine you are automatically having better chances to have great results and by thinking the opposite failure is one step closer.

If you believe you can or can't, you are both ways right.


Stay curious Mind-explorers!

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