self-fulfilling prophecy

English

Coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton.

self-fulfilling prophecy (plural self-fulfilling prophecies)

A prediction that, by being voiced, causes itself to come true.
- 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 130:
  Whether or not we believe in astrology is irrelevant; the question is, did the Magdalenians? If so, then in a self-fulfilling prophecy they may have been organizing their lives according to a religious belief system, and not simply an economic or ecological one.
- 2022 January 26, Stephen Roberts, “Top of the stops: our least used stations”, in RAIL, number 949, page 56:
  Operator Abellio ScotRail doubled the Mon-Sat service from one train in each direction to two from May 2019 - it being something of a self-fulfilling prophecy that if you lay on trains, people might use them.

A prediction that, by being voiced, causes itself to come true