The human brain does not have sufficient computing power and labor discipline to understand each perceived phenomenon every time anew. With a fresh influx of data, he passes them through a whole series of blanks and patterns of interpretation left over from the same or similar situations - through stereotypes created in his own workshop or borrowed from the external sociocultural environment. Perceptual stereotypes, like color stencils, are layered on the perceived fuzzy phenomenon, hastily adding missing strokes and filling the voids with paints by analogy with already known samples. This allows us to avoid overloads and quickly make judgments about what we are dealing with, to obtain moderately reliable information about the object without the need to fully analyze it.
It is obvious what kind of danger lies in this - the natural limitations of the human mind, as well as the equally natural laziness, force us to treat with negligence the need to constantly update the stereotypes of perception and check them with new experience. We go blind, starting to see not the world around us, but glasses fastened to our nose with their colored glasses, our own stencils, stereotypes, and not what they should help us see. Instead of being an instrument for cognizing reality, the mind becomes an obstacle on this path, closing in on its own chimerical constructions. He turns into a labyrinth of reflections and perceives not the world of phenomena, but the structures contained in it, loaded from external sources or created with his own hand.
A stereotype that has gotten out of control and is not constantly updated lowers the ability to judge, restrains the higher capabilities of the individual. The point is not that such stereotypes (let's call them mechanical) do not give us an "objective" vision of reality - it is simply impossible. However, unlike organically functioning stereotypes, they are divorced from the ability to judge, do not serve it, they are alien and inanimate bodies (because they are not renewed, as all living things should) - therefore, we get a much more distorted picture of the world than our equipment allows. Mechanical stereotypes based on the principle of influence can be called self-fulfilling prophecies - by predicting what the observed phenomenon is, we squeeze it into the Procrustean bed of prejudice and really perceive it as it appears to our expectations. By formulating a prophecy, we fulfill it, believing in the reality of the situation, we create it.
Static self-fulfilling prophecies
Professor Dan Ariely carried out an interesting study, the task of which was to determine the degree of distortion of information coming from the senses under the influence of prejudice and expectation. In the first version of the experiment, people were asked to taste two samples of beer. Participants were told that they were two different varieties of the drink, when in reality the second sample differed from the first only in that balsamic vinegar was added to it. After the test, the subjects were asked which beer they liked more and which one they would like a full glass. The vast majority preferred sample number two - beer with balsamic vinegar. So it turned out that "objectively" adding balsamic vinegar to both the lower-priced beer (Budweiser) and one of the best beers in the US (Samuel Adams) made it tastier.
In the second version of the experiment, the participants were again asked to compare the same two beer samples, but they were informed in advance that the second had been added balsamic vinegar. Now the vast majority of the subjects found beer mixed with balsamic vinegar disgusting.
What happened here is the prevalence of negative expectations of people (a combination of beer and vinegar cannot be tasty) over empirical data from the senses, despite the fact that, as the first variant of the experiment showed, they like such a combination. The demonstrated situation of suppressing the ability of judgment and even sensory perception by a stereotype, which seems exclusive to an outside observer, is an everyday reality of human life.
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Referring to an extreme example, imagine that you are being examined by a psychiatrist who is convinced in advance that he is mentally ill. None of the tools at your disposal will be able to convince him otherwise. If you protest and resent loudly, you will be classified as typically violent, aggressive, and unable to control your emotions. If you laugh it off and deny everything or lock yourself in, it will be called defense mechanisms. Finally, if you do everything that is required of you with sober judgment and try to prove your own sanity with impeccably rational behavior, the psychiatrist will immediately recognize you as a classic intellectual psychopath - cold, calculating, manipulative, brilliantly imitating normalcy. Whatever you say and do,everything will be summed up under this or that heading. As they say, there would be a person, but there would be an article.
However, even without any extremes, everyday life provides us with countless examples of self-fulfilling prophecies that distort our perception. Oobah Butler has performed brilliant pranks and social experiments at the same time, demonstrating their limitless power. In one of them, he bought a lot of third-rate clothing from the fake Georgio Peviani brand in the London market, created a stylish website for it, and registered for Paris Fashion Week as the creator and designer of the brand. There, he managed not only to host several successful fashion shows of models dressed in raincoats and cheap market jeans, but also to receive endorsements from various Parisian and Milan designers. From the point of view of psychology, this is not surprising. By its essence, fashion is everything that appears on the catwalk, it is thatwhat "trendy" people and celebrities wear. It is not the quality characteristics of the garment that open the way for it to elite shows, but the fact that it appears at these shows or is worn by opinion leaders makes it stylish and luxurious. Even for most professionals, the ability of independent judgment is so blurred and dull that any plastic bag or tin can on the head will immediately become a haute couture on the catwalk, and on top of that, it will become a bold philosophical thesis.that any plastic bag or tin can on the head will immediately become a haute couture on the catwalk, and moreover, it will become a bold philosophical thesis.that any plastic bag or tin can on the head will immediately become a haute couture on the catwalk, and moreover, it will become a bold philosophical thesis.
In the second prank, Uba Butler set up a makeshift restaurant in his backyard and fraudulently brought it to the # 1 position on TripAdvisor's London rankings. Guests, including celebrities, have been seeking a table reservation at this "elite" establishment for several months in a row, and finally a small group of lucky ones was invited to taste delicious and original dishes from one of the best chefs. Anyway, so the guests thought, in reality they were served beautifully decorated instant soups and cheap fast food from a nearby supermarket. Needless to say, everyone liked everything and when leaving, people made reservations for the next time? Expectations again prevailed over feelings. Restaurant # 1 is supposed to cook first-class food, they have been trying to book a table there for several months, so what they ate is delicious.
We have seen the same thing in art for at least a century. Go to contemporary galleries, see the chairs, urinals, geometric compositions, wire sculptures, performances and happenings. They did not get into these luxurious halls because they are art. On the contrary, precisely because they are located there, they are art. There is not a single object that would be ridiculous, ugly and outrageous enough not to become an art object if surrounded by a showcase. Spit on a piece of paper, rub it and hang it on the wall in the Museum of Modern Art - the new work will immediately gather fans and experts who admire your rebellion against pop culture, the artist's self-irony and deep daring meditation on the nature of creativity. What fits in an art gallery is art; it's in the art gallery,hence it is art. This is the simple syllogism of self-fulfilling prophecy.
In one of the films, the classic comedian Groucho, being caught in a lie, indignantly declares: "Who do you believe - your eyes or my words?" It just sounds ridiculous, but as philosophy, history and socio-psychological experiments demonstrate, we often believe much more in words and prejudices than in our own eyes, language and independent analysis, which we simply cannot do. Such self-fulfilling prophecies are static - they distort our perception of phenomena, but by themselves they do not start a chain of events that transform the plot of our life and direct it along a different path. The latter can be called dynamic.
Dynamic self-fulfilling prophecies
When Dan Ariely lay in the burn ward after suffering an accident, he, like all other patients, was entitled to a dose of morphine to relieve the immense pain they were enduring. Patients could decide for themselves how to distribute the dose during the day, but in any case, the drug did not help to completely cope with the suffering - its quantity was limited to prevent severe dependence. One night, while lying in his room at night, Arieli heard a man next door start screaming in pain. A nurse came to the poor man, gave an injection, after which he quickly calmed down and fell asleep. Arieli called the nurse and also asked for an additional injection. In secret, the professor was told that the dose of morphine was not exceeded for anyone, and that patient was given a placebo - he was injected with ordinary saline solution, salted water.
Arieli, of course, was well aware of the existence of a placebo, but to face its power in person and live is a different matter. After leaving the burn department, he conducted a series of new experiments, in the simplest of which people were told that they were participating in testing a new pain reliever. Participants were given dummy pills, after which they were connected to a shock generator and asked to compare the pain sensations with those they experienced from electric shocks before taking the pills. The majority of the participants were able to tolerate much higher levels of pain after taking "pain relievers".
Then Arieli tried to understand how and to what extent expectations can alter the intensity of the placebo effect. It turned out that pacifiers that were advertised as expensive ($ 2.5 per pill) had a significantly greater effect than the cheap ones (10 cents per pill). In other, earlier studies, it was found that capsules are more effective than tablets, and injections are more effective than both the former and the latter; two tablets work better than one; beautiful tablets are more effective than ordinary ones, and the name of the drug on the tablet enhances its effect.
The placebo effect described here, backed up by thousands of studies, is the simplest example of a dynamic, self-fulfilling prophecy. Belief in a certain scenario of the development of events does not just change the perception of certain objects, but realizes the program itself inherent in it. In this case, belief in the pain reliever caused the brain to release completely real opiates, homogeneous in effect to morphine. Situations in which our expectations about the development of the course of things provoke in us behavior that makes these representations real are common at all levels and in all areas of human life. Thus, a student who is worried before the exam and is sure of failure multiplies the conditions for his own collapse. Groundless,but persistent rumors about the instability of the financial market or the bankruptcy of the company inevitably lead to a real drop in performance, up to their complete collapse. A person who is confident in himself and in the sympathy of others is much more likely to evoke the latter in those around him. On the contrary, feelings of hostility provoke behaviors that actually cause this hostility.
R. Curtis and K. Miller set up an experiment that well illustrates the similar effect of self-fulfilling prophecies in the measurement of interpersonal relationships. The participants in the experiment (students who were not familiar with each other) were divided into pairs in which they had to communicate for some time on various common topics. In the first group, the subjects were told "in secret" that their partner liked them, in the second - that, on the contrary, he did not like them. As predicted, the partner's liking or disliking bias triggered the behaviors that were conducive to them. Those who were confident in a positive attitude communicated in a relaxed, cordial, interested way and really liked each other. Those who expected the opposite were more constrained, inhospitable, cold, and experienced a real antipathy towards each other.
Our biases affect not only ourselves, but other people as well and trigger self-fulfilling prophecies in their lives, as demonstrated, for example, by Jacobson and Rosenthal in their classic study of the Pygmalion Effect, where high expectations lead to high results. They randomly selected a group of junior grade students and told their teachers that they had passed serious tests of intelligence and demonstrated enormous potential. After comparing, after a while, the progress of these students with the results of their classmates, they found that those from whom the teachers expected a lot, it was significantly higher.
The Pygmalion effect has been confirmed by further research, including on the flip side (the "Golem effect") - low expectations lead to low results. The belief that the other person will fail, or a prejudice in the poor quality of his work, contribute to the practical implementation of this scenario. To quote William Thomas, "if people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."
We necessarily perceive the reality around us through the prism of stereotypes - they are an irreplaceable tool, without which our mind is simply not able to function. Nevertheless, there is a threat of their transformation into mechanical constructions that blind us, undermining their very own usefulness. To prevent the dulling of our perception and judgment, we must continually test, refine, and update the set of lenses we have. Moreover, one should try to rely on them as little as possible, giving priority to fresh analysis and synthesis rather than repetitive thinking in a pattern. The extent to which the individual succeeds in this determines the purity and independence of his perception, allows him to arrange his own life wiser and protect himself from manipulation. The creation of self-fulfilling prophecies is the main method of managing human behavior, during which templates of perception and programs that are beneficial to external forces are loaded into the human mind. The ability to deconstruct them (a kind of informational immunity) is the fundamental skill that protects a person from submission to the interests of the external environment and living in someone else's life instead of his own.
© Oleg Tsendrovsky