The Link between Expectations and Behavior

The link between expectations and behavior depends in other ways as well on a perceiver’s goals and motivations in the interaction. In one study, John Copeland put either the perceiver or the target into a posi- tion of relative power. In all cases, the perceiver interacted with a target person who was said to be introverted or extroverted. In half the pairs, the perceiver was given the power to accept or reject the target as a teammate for a money-winning game. In the other half, it was the target who was empowered to choose a team- mate. The two participants interacted, the interaction was recorded, and neutral

observers listened to the tapes and rated the target person. Did perceivers cause the targets to behave as introverted or extroverted, depending on initial expecta- tions? Yes and no. Illustrating what Copeland called “prophecies of power,” the results showed that high-power perceivers triggered the self-fulfilling prophecy, as in past research, but that low-power perceivers did not. In the low-power situ- ation, the perceivers spent less time getting to know the target person and more time trying to be liked.

Now consider the second step: the link between a perceiver’s behavior and the target’s response. In the designs of much of the past research (as in much of life), target persons were not aware of the false impressions held by others. Thus, it is unlikely that Rosenthal and Jacobson’s “late bloomers” knew of their teachers’ high expectations or that Snyder and Swann’s “introverts” and “extroverts” knew of their interviewers’ misconceptions. But what if they had known? How would you react if you found yourself being cast in a particu- lar light? When it happened to participants in one experiment, they managed to overcome the effect by behaving in ways that forced the perceivers to abandon their expectations.