| Self-fulfilling Prophecy |
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Self-fulfilling prophecies are often seen as similar to the Predestination Paradox , in which a person Travels Back In Time to prevent an event, but ends up causing it. These two phenomena differ on a key point however. A self-fulfilling prophecy is when a person with belief of future events alters his behaviour in a way that ends up causing these events. On the other hand, a predestination paradox is when a person with knowledge of past events goes back in time, and ends up causing the events. PSYCHOLOGY Self-fulfilling prophecy is sometimes seen as a manifestation of Positive Feedback in human society. In short, because a given prophecy was known, and was sufficiently credible, it affected people's actions and caused itself. Robert K. Merton is usually acknowledged as the originator of this phrase. Examples abound in studies of Cognitive Dissonance Theory and the related Self-perception Theory ; People will often change their Attitude s to come into line with what they profess publicly. Other specific examples discussed in Psychology include: LITERATURE, MEDIA, AND THE ARTS In literature, self-fulfilling prophecies are often used as Plot Devices . In the hands of clumsy authors, prophecy becomes a substitute for motivation and characterization: the great magician tracks down the blacksmith's son not because the son has any unique characteristics that make him particularly fit to overthrow the Dark Lord , or because he has worked out a plan that can only use his skills, but because It Has Been Prophesied. Defter writers use prophecies as ways to goad characters into actions intended to stop the prophecy from coming true but actually ensuring its fulfillment, or intended to fulfill a prophecy one way while actually ensuring a quite different fulfillment. Classic One of the earliest examples of self-fulfilling prophecies in literature is the Ancient Greek Legend of Oedipus . Warned that his child would one day kill him, Laius abandoned his newborn son Oedipus to die. But Oedipus was instead adopted by a foster family, and kept ignorant of his true origins. When he grew up, Oedipus was warned that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Believing his foster parents were his real parents, he left his home and travelled Greece, eventually reaching the city where his biological parents lived. There, he got into a fight with a stranger and killed him, and married his widow. Unknown to anyone at the time, the stranger was Oedipus’ real father, and the widow he married was his mother. Hence, the prophecy about him had come true because of everyone's attempts to prevent it. Shakespeare's Macbeth is another classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The three witches give Macbeth a prophecy that Macbeth tries to fulfill. In the end, the prophecy ends up coming true; however, there is always the question of what would have happened had Macbeth not heard the prophecy from the witches originally. Modern In more recent arts, the plot of the '' was based around a self-fulfilling prophecy. The main character, Anakin Skywalker , has a Premonitory Dream about the death of his wife Padmé Amidala , and searches for a way to save her. However, his solution is what ends up killing her. In '' Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban '', Harry sees his "father" save him and Sirus Black. After traveling back in time with a time turner, he tries to meet his "father" but realize it was himself standing there that he saw as his father. In '' Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix '', a prophecy was made at Harry Potter ’s birth, saying that neither he nor Dark Lord could live while the other survived. To protect himself, the Dark Lord attempted to kill Harry Potter while he was an infant, but his curse backfired on him. Because of the transfer of power that occurred as a result this, the prophecy now has to be fulfilled in order for them to live in peace. In the computer game '' Guild Wars '', it is prophesied that some Chosen will destroy a race called "Mursaat". To prevent the prophecies from coming true, the Mursaat and some of their worshippers, the White Mantle, kill as many Chosen as possible. However, when a group of heroes see the Chosen being killed, they turn against and eventually destroy the White Mantle and the Mursaat to prevent further killings, only later to discover that they are Chosen. Series Eight of the British comedy '' Red Dwarf '' sees a self-fullfilling prophecy started by the words "In twenty minutes all the Canaries will be dead, except for Rimmer . Rimmer will die in forty seconds of a heart attack from the shock of being told he's going to have a heart attack." Several classic episodes of '' The Twilight Zone '' used a self-fulfilling prophecy. One example is '' What's In The Box '', in which a man sees himself (on Television ) killing his wife because he had an affair. He tries to confess to his wife, but ends up killing her in the ugly fight the confession triggers. The movie The Matrix heavily incorporates the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy. One recognizable scene that directly references it is when Morpheus takes Neo to see The Oracle . When Neo walks in to speak to the Oracle, she says "I'd ask you to sit down, but you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase." Neo then says "What vase?" and knocks over and breaks a vase that is sitting on a counter next to him. Neo apologizes and the Oracle tells him not to worry about it. Neo asks how she knew, to which the Oracle responds, "What's really going to bake your noodle later on is: would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?" TECHNOLOGY In 1965, Gordon Moore predicted that the number of Transistor s on Integrated Circuit s would double every 18 months. This prediction, which became known as Moore's Law , was initially an observation of a trend in the early days of the Semiconductor industry. However, it has become a benchmark for progress in the industry, and a goal that companies focus on attaining. It thus became a self-fulfilling prophecy. SEE ALSO
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