expectancyconfirming

Expectancy confirming, sometimes called expectancy-confirmation, is a cognitive and perceptual process in which observers interpret, judge, and remember information in ways that reinforce their preexisting expectations. It operates through top-down processing, selective attention, interpretation of ambiguous signals, memory encoding, and recall, and it is closely related to confirmation bias.

In social perception, expectancy confirming can contribute to self-fulfilling prophecies: beliefs about another person influence behaviors toward them, which in turn elicit responses that reinforce the original belief. In research and evaluation, observer-expectancy effects describe how researchers’ or evaluators’ expectations may unintentionally bias measurements or interpretations toward confirming those expectations.

In consumer behavior and service contexts, expectancy confirming refers to the alignment between perceived performance and prior expectations. When actual experience matches what a person anticipated, satisfaction can result even if the objective outcome is modest. Conversely, when performance clearly diverges from expectations, disconfirmation occurs, which can reduce satisfaction or lead to revised beliefs about the product or service.

Relation to other concepts: expectancy confirming is a form of confirmation bias and is related to self-fulfilling prophecies and observer-expectancy effects. It is often contrasted with expectancy disconfirmation, where outcomes are either better or worse than expected.

Overall, expectancy confirming highlights how expectations can shape perception, interpretation, and memory, influencing judgments and outcomes across social, educational, and consumer domains. See also: confirmation bias, self-fulfilling prophecy, observer-expectancy effect, expectancy disconfirmation.