Others’ negative expectations reshape the personality of prejudice targets

Evidence

Drawing on the self-fulfilling prophecy and other reflected appraisal theories that emphasize the importance of others’ opinions on the development of the self-concept (see Crocker & Major, 1989, for a review), Allport (1954/ 1979) assumed that “no one can be indifferent to the abuse and expectations of others” (p. 142). Further, he believed that prejudice inevitably has an effect on the personality of its victims. “One’s reputation, whether false or true,” he observed, “cannot be hammered, hammered, hammered, into one’s head without doing something to one’s character” (p. 142). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 927

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘hammered into one’s head’ mechanism connects to stereotype threat research and to symbolic interactionism’s looking-glass self.
• DEEPTHINKING: Allport’s image of reputation being hammered into one’s head captures a feedback loop between social perception and self-formation that still structures modern identity research.