# self fulfilling prophecy (stacked-dependency)

*Ordinarily means:* A prediction that causes itself to come true.

A model in a thing that acts and thereby changes the thing just enough to make the model true.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: social system  ·  Arena: belief and behavior

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [interaction](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-interaction.process), [self-model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-model.reflexive), [parameter](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-parameter.condition), [drift](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-drift.aimless)

**Through:** self-model acting on itself through interaction that changes its own parameters

**Novel properties:**
- self-fulfilling prophecy

## Examples
- In 2008, Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy accelerated a credit freeze that its risk models had warned could collapse the firm. *(economics)*
- The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in 1940 when wind-induced oscillations matched its structural resonance frequency. *(engineering)*
- Patients with Parkinson's disease report worse tremors when told their medication is delayed, even if it isn't. *(medicine)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-fulfilling-prophecy.stacked-dependency*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-fulfilling-prophecy.stacked-dependency.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*