Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Many prophecies can become self-fulfilling. That is to say, when people make a prediction about themselves or someone they interact with closely, from that moment on they will tend to act in a way that actually elicits the result they were expecting. Precisely because people expect a certain outcome to occur, they will act in a way that fits in with these expectations, and their behaviors will confirm the earlier prejudice. This basic human tendency to act as expected then makes the predicted outcome more likely.