When Accuracy-Motivated Perceivers Fail: Limited Attentional Resources and the Reemerging Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Abstract

The ability of accuracy-motivated perceivers to form individuated impressions of targets and to avoid creating self-fulfilling prophecies is hypothesized to depend on sufficient attentional resources. Accuracy-motivated interviewers were led to believe that their applicants were either well suited for the job or not and were given either no task or a mildly or highly distracting task to complete during the interview. Consistent with past research, nondistracted accuracy-motivated interviewers neither created self-fulfilling prophecies nor formed expectation-consistent impressions. In contrast, highly distracted accuracy-motivated interviewers both created self-fulfilling prophecies and formed expectation-consistent impressions. Without sufficient attentional resources, even well-intentioned accuracy-motivated perceivers can fall prey to their inaccurate expectations and create inappropriate self-fulfilling prophecies.