PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Madon et al. / MUTUAL INFLUENCE Am I as You See Me or Do You See Me as I Am? Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and Self-Verification Stephanie Madon Iowa State University Alison Smith Lee Jussim Rutgers University Daniel W. Russell Iowa State University Jacquelynne Eccles Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan Polly Palumbo Michele Walkiewicz Rutgers University This research investigated the extent to which self-fulfilling prophecies and self-verification occurred among 108 teachers and 1,692 students in 108 sixth-grade public school math class- rooms. Results demonstrated three main findings. Self-fulfilling prophecies and self-verification occurred simultaneously in a context where perceivers and targets had highly valid informa- tion on which to base their initial perceptions. The availability of highly valid information led perceivers and targets to develop initially similar perceptions before mutual influence took place. High similarity between perceivers’ and targets’ initial percep- tions had no effect on the power of self-verification but weakened the effect of self-fulfilling prophecies for some targets. These find- ings are discussed in terms of their implications for extended and close relationships and how the nature of people’s perceptions may influence the power of self-fulfilling prophecies and self- verification. In areas as diverse as public school classrooms and mili- tary camps in Israel, people’s (i.e., perceiver’s) false beliefs create self-fulfilling prophecies by shaping how others (i.e., targets) behave and view themselves (e.g., Eden & Shani, 1982; Jussim, Eccles, & Madon, 1996). However, targets are rarely so malleable that they simply become what others expect them to be. Targets also self- verify during social interactions by convincing perceivers to adopt expectations that match their own self-concepts (Swann, 1987). Several studies have dem- onstrated that these processes can occur simultaneously (Major, Cozzarelli, Testa, & McFarlin, 1988; McNulty & Swann, 1994; Swann & Ely, 1984). However, those studies focused on social relationships in which perceivers had little or invalid information about targets. Mutual influ- ence may operate differently when perceivers have a wealth of valid information on which to base their per- ceptions. The current research addressed this issue by examining self-fulfilling prophecies and self-verification within sixth-grade public school math classrooms where Authors’ Note: This research was supported by National Institute of Child and Health Development (NICHD) Grant 1 R29 HD28401-01A1 to the third author. Data collection was funded by grants to the fifth au- thor from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), NICHD, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Special thanks are ex- tended to the personnel from all of the participating schools for their help with data collection and to the following people for their aid in collecting and processing the data: Bonnie L. Barber, Christy Miller Buchanan, Harriet Feldlaufer, Connie Flanagan, Janis Jacobs, Dave Klingel, Doug MacIver, Carol Midgley, David Reuman, and Allan Wigfield. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed to Stephanie Madon at Department of Psychology, W112 Lagomarcino Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50010, or to Lee Jussim at Depart- ment of Psychology, Tillett Hall, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903; e-mail: madon@iastate.edu or jussim@rci.rutgers.edu. PSPB, Vol. 27 No. 9, September 2001 1214-1224 © 2001 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. 1214