{"id":8045,"date":"2020-04-02T15:37:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T19:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=8045"},"modified":"2020-04-06T21:37:41","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T01:37:41","slug":"social-mirror-7-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Mirror Theory: How Others View You Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you want to reflect back a clear, positive image that emphasizes a person\u2019s potential, or a distorted one based on assumptions, stereotypes, and misunderstandings? This reflection is what we refer to as social mirror theory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Social mirror theory is the theory that <strong>people\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/realationships-with-others\/\">relationships with others<\/a> create a social mirror that reflects images of themselves back to them and affects their paradigms.<\/strong> This is essentially the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn how social mirror theory works and why others&#8217; opinions of you matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Social Mirror and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Self-renewal helps us attain inner peace and stability that improves our effective interdependent relationships. The social mirror theory is about how our actions and attitudes reflect on us, and how they affect others. You\u2019re part of that social mirror, and how you react to others affects how they see themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/abundance-mentality-covey-7-habits\/\">Abundance Mentality<\/a> assures that if you choose to reflect positive images back to the people around you \u2014 affirming their proactive behaviors or potentials, attesting to their principles, and holding them to high standards \u2014 it doesn\u2019t take away from your own self-image and self-worth in any way. In fact, being a positive social mirror also benefits you because your positive reflection of others supports them in becoming more proactive, effective people with whom you can have productive interdependent interactions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Does the Social Mirror Work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The effects of the social mirrors can be extreme: In one example, a glitch in a school computer in England mislabeled one class of \u201cbright\u201d students as \u201cdumb,\u201d and another class of \u201cdumb\u201d students as \u201cbright.\u201d As they started the school year, the teachers\u2019 views of their students were based primarily on these wrong reports.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several months later, administrators realized the error and tested the students to find out the impact of the mistake. IQ scores dropped for the students who were wrongly labeled as \u201cdumb,\u201d as teachers had treated them as incompetent, uncooperative, and difficult. But scores went up for the students who\u2019d been labeled \u201cbright\u201d; although those teachers were perplexed at the beginning of the year when the supposedly \u201cbright\u201d students weren\u2019t performing well, the teachers attributed the problem to their teaching methods and changed their approach until the students\u2019 performance reflected the teachers\u2019 expectations. This is a great example of social mirror theory. It turned out, <strong>the biggest predictor of students\u2019 performance was not their inherent ability or lack thereof, but teachers\u2019 expectations and how they treated students as a result.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The social mirror theory is an important part of self-renewal. Self-renewal requires social renewal, and balancing self-awareness with awareness and care in relationships. By understanding how your actions impact others, you can focus on imparting positive messages and creating positive interactions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you want to reflect back a clear, positive image that emphasizes a person\u2019s potential, or a distorted one based on assumptions, stereotypes, and misunderstandings? This reflection is what we refer to as social mirror theory. Social mirror theory is the theory that people\u2019s relationships with others create a social mirror that reflects images of themselves back to them and affects their paradigms. This is essentially the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy. Learn how social mirror theory works and why others&#8217; opinions of you matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,24],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-8045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-self-improvement","category-society","tag-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Social Mirror Theory: How Others View You Matters - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Social mirror theory says your relationships with others create a social mirror that changes how you view yourself. Learn why others&#039; opinions matter.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social Mirror Theory: How Others View You Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Social mirror theory says your relationships with others create a social mirror that changes how you view yourself. Learn why others&#039; opinions matter.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-02T19:37:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-07T01:37:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/mirror-7-habits-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Social Mirror Theory: How Others View You Matters\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-02T19:37:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-07T01:37:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/\"},\"wordCount\":470,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/mirror-7-habits-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Self-Improvement\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/\",\"name\":\"Social Mirror Theory: How Others View You Matters - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-mirror-7-habits\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/mirror-7-habits-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-02T19:37:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-07T01:37:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"Social mirror theory says your relationships with others create a social mirror that changes how you view yourself. 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