The Barnum Effect: why we love astrology and personality tests
Curated from: nesslabs.com
Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:
3 ideas
·2.41K reads
20
1
Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
The Barnum Effect
Astrology, aura reading, fortune telling, cold calling, and some personality tests all exploit the Barnum Effect: Individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them but they don't consider that the descriptions actually applies to everyone.
The term was first coined in 1956 by psychologist Paul Meehl. He compared the vague personality descriptions used in some psychological tests to P.T. Barnum, a famous showman.
111
1.08K reads
The Barnum Effect And The Forer Effect
The Barnum effect is also called the Forer effect. Bertram Forer used a fake psychology test on his students then gave them supposedly individualised results a week later. He asked them to rate how well it applied to them. The students rated the accuracy of the statements at an average of 4.3 out of 5.
The problem was that Forer used various bits of copy he had found in a newsstand astrology book for the fake results and that all students received the exact same list of observations.
84
681 reads
Factors That Make The Barnum Effect Stronger
- Personal analyses: You believe the analysis applies only to you, and you apply your own meaning to the statements. Instead, take a step back and first see if it could not apply to almost everyone else.
- Perceived authority: You believe in the authority of the evaluator. Question the authority of the source.
- Positive content: The analysis uses mostly positive traits. Pay attention to the balance between positive and negative statements.
When you know about these factors, it becomes easier to avoid falling prey to the Barnum Effect.
92
649 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Carson 's ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about psychology with this collection
How to apply new knowledge in everyday life
Why continuous learning is important
How to find and evaluate sources of knowledge
Related collections
Similar ideas
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates