Teddy Swims’ new single, “Mr. Know It All,” may sound like a standard breakup song, but he’s actually singing about a phenomenon first identified by sociologist Robert K. Merton.
Merton coined the term “self-fulfilling prophecy,” along with its flip side, the “self-defeating prophecy,” also known as “the prophet’s dilemma.” Imagine doctors predicting a flu outbreak, prompting everyone to run out and get vaccinated. Because so many people get the flu shots, the outbreak never happens — and the doctors, the “prophets,” are criticized for being wrong.
In “Mr. Know It All,” Teddy applies those ideas to love. He becomes convinced his girlfriend is going to break up with him, so he either subconsciously sabotages the relationship — the self-fulfilling prophecy — or tries so hard to save it that it creates problems — the self-defeating prophecy. Either way, the outcome is the same: She leaves him.
“If you see the future coming, like something falling apart, you can have the … That’s So Raven effect, right? Where you do everything you can to keep it from happening and that’s why it happens,” Teddy tells ABC Audio. “Versus maybe the other side is self-fulfilling … because you see it happening and that’s what happens. And so it’s like you’re kind of doomed if you do, [doomed] if you don’t.”
“Love is kind of its own contradiction in a way, that way,” he explains. “You can protect it too hard and lose it or you can know it’s coming and just lose it. … So I just kind of got obsessed with that sort of prophet’s dilemma, and that’s ‘Mr. Know It All.'”
Sociology concepts aside, “Mr. Know It All” is the first single from Teddy’s still-unannounced new album.
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