Part of being a critical observer of the world around you is understanding and identifying self-fufilling prophecies. These are predictions that by the nature of the prediction, or by making the prediction, are guaranteed to come true.
This often occurs in newspaper or magazine headlines. "X is popular/trendy!" Of course it is - thousands of people around the country now know about said person/product and now believe it is legitimately popular. "X is gaining support [in a political election]." Well, now that you said that, more people may be inclined to follow them. And my personal favorite, "Consumer confidence on the rise!" Oh give me a break. The newspaper people are just manipulating their readers into thinking consumer confidence is on the rise, so that it actually is.
Another example is saying some place is a very good school. "Oh, you go/went to X? That's a really good school!" Now that you've said that, better people will apply there, actually making it a better school because of the quality of the people.
In my opinion, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy is one of the most underhanded forms of manipulation, since most people are unaware, and you can claim you never manipulated people in the first place.
Also, on a side note, this blog has recently been very popular and everyone says they thoroughly enjoy reading it.
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