Concept of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

[Charles C Doyle]

Which is why (as some sociologist pointed out years ago) political polls--like the recent Iowa "straw poll"--are important:  Americans like to vote for "winners," to be associated (in their own minds, at least) with victorious candidates.  Even if the election outcome to which they contributed is actually disadvantageous to those voters (as some other commentator has noted, Americans vote not the interest of class to which they belong but the interest of the class to which they wish they belonged).

--Charlie

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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of victor steinbok [aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 12:57 PM

It is perfectly possible that my interpretation is too restrictive and the
Wiki contributors are correct. But, in my view, fatalism and inexorable fate
are not a part of self-fulfilling prophecy--they are essentially unrelated
concepts. On the other hand, for example, I would consider marketing based
on product sales rank to be a self-fulfilling prophecy (to a point)--i.e., a
product is marketed as best to buy because it is already best selling
(implying that the plurality or majority of consumers cannot be wrong
thereby inducing other consumers to buy it as well). Similar issues exist in
rankings based on polls and surveys--whether it's college football or
Zagat's restaurant reviews.

VS-)

On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 12:03 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>wrote:

>
> I have recently come across the following line of Gibbon's in The Decline
> and Fall of the Roman Empire:  "The prediction, as it is usual, contributed
> to its own accomplishment."  This makes me wonder, what is the earliest
> known expression of the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy?
>
> Fred Shapiro

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