Barnum effect

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The Barnum effect, also called the Forer effect , is a common psychological phenomenon in which individuals assign high-accuracy ratings to their personality descriptions that should be tailored specifically to them but that is, in fact, unclear and common enough to apply to a wide variety of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some paranormal beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, aura reading, and some types of personality tests.

The Barnum effect occurs when people believe that what they are being told applies specifically to them, despite the fact that it can apply to almost everyone. In short, this is a con-technique. This characterization is used by practitioners to convince customers that they have a paranormal gift. The effect is found when the assessment statement is unclear and people can interpret their own meaning into the statement they receive, so the statement becomes "private" to them. Also, individuals are more likely to accept negative judgments about themselves if they see the person presenting the assessment as a high-status professional.

The name "Barnum Effect" was created in 1956 by psychologist Paul Meehl in his essay

Video Barnum effect

Ikhtisar

The Barnum effect is manifested in response to a statement called "Barnum's statement," which means that the general characterization made about an individual is true for them, although his statement is a generalization that can apply to almost everyone. Such statements are used by astrologers, astrologers, and other fraudulent practitioners to convince customers that they, the practitioners, actually have a paranormal gift. The effect is a specific example of the so-called "acceptance phenomenon", which describes the general tendency of humans "to accept almost all false personality feedback". The related phenomenon and more generally is subjective validation. Subjective validation occurs when two unrelated or even random events are thought to be related because beliefs, expectations, or hypotheses demand a relationship. For example, while reading horoscopes, people actively seek correspondence between their content and their perception of their personality.

Maps Barnum effect

Initial research

In 1947, a psychologist named Ross Stagner asked a number of personnel managers to take a personality test. After they took the test, Stagner, instead of responding with feedback based on their actual individual answers, each presented with general feedback that had nothing to do with their test answers, but that, on the contrary, was based on horoscopes, graphical analysis, and the like. Each manager was then asked how accurate his judgment was. More than half describe the assessment accurately, and almost nothing describes it as wrong.

In 1948, in what was described as a "classical experiment," psychologist Bertram R. Forer gave a psychological test - the so-called "Empty Knowledge Interests" - to 39 psychology students who were told they would receive a sketch or a brief personality sketch based on the results test them. One week later Forer gave each student a supposedly individualized sketch and asked each of them to assess how well it applies. In fact, each student receives the same sketch, which consists of the following items:

1. You desperately need others to like and admire you.
2. You tend to be critical of yourself.
3. You have unused capacity that you have not utilized.
4. Even if you have some personality flaws, you can usually keep up.
5. Discipline and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrying and insecure inside.
6. Sometimes you have serious doubts, whether you've made the right decision or done the right thing.
7. You prefer a certain number of changes and variations and become dissatisfied when constrained by restrictions and restrictions.
8. You pride yourself on being an independent thinker and not accepting other people's statements without satisfactory proof.
9. You feel unwise to be too open to reveal yourself to others.
10. Sometimes you are extroverted, friendly, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, alert, quiet.
11. Some of your aspirations tend to be very unrealistic.
12. Security is one of your primary goals in life.

On average, students rated their accuracy as 4.30 on a scale of 0 (very bad) to 5 (very good). Only after the rank submitted turns out that every student has received an identical sketch assembled by Forer from the astrology book kiosk. This sketch contains a vague statement and is quite common to apply to most people.

The Forer effect is also known as the "Barnum effect". The term was coined in 1956 by American psychologist Paul Meehl in his essay "Wanted - A Good Cookbook". He attributes the vague description of personality used in the psychological tests of a particular "pseudo-success" psychology given by the showman P. T. Barnum.

Forer hooked the Barnum effect easily gullible. The effect has been said to confirm the so-called "Pollyanna principle", which states that individuals tend to "use or receive positive words or feedback more often than negative words from feedback".

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Repeating the study

Two important factors in producing the Forer effect, according to the findings of replication studies. The content of the description offered is important, with special emphasis on the ratio of the assessment of positive to negative traits. Another important factor is that the subject trusts the honesty of the person providing the feedback. The study is repeated again in 2011 with altered statements so that they are applied to organizations rather than individuals. The results are similar, showing that people are anthropomorphized organizations and gullible when interpreting their characters.

The effect is consistently found when the assessment statement is unclear. People can read their own meaning into the statement they receive, and thus the statement becomes "private" to them. The most effective statements include the phrases "at times", such as "Sometimes you feel very confident in yourself, while at other times you are not confident." This phrase can apply to almost anyone, so everyone can read the "private" meaning into it. Keeping the assertion unclear in this way ensures observing the Forer effect in replication studies.

Individuals are more likely to accept negative judgments about themselves if they see the person presenting them with that assessment as a high-status professional. The evidence also shows that people with authoritarian or neurotic personality or who have greater than usual needs for approval are more likely to realize the Barnum effect.

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Variables affecting effects

Studies show that the Forer effect is universal - it has been observed in people from many cultures and locations. In 2009, psychologists Paul Rogers and Janice Soule conducted a study comparing the tendency of Westerners to accept Barnum's personality profile with Chinese tendencies. They can not find any significant difference.

Subsequent research found that subjects rated higher accuracy if the following were true:

• the subject believes that the analysis applies only to him, and thus applies his own meaning to the statement.
• the subject believes in the evaluator's authority.
• The list of analyzes is primarily positive.

The method in which Barnum's personality profile is presented can influence the extent to which people accept them as their own. For example, a more personalized Barnum profile - perhaps containing a specific person's name - is more likely to result in a higher acceptance rating than can be applied to anyone.

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Recent research

Confidence in paranormal

Subjects who, for example, believe in the accuracy of a horoscope have a greater tendency to believe that the vague generalizations of the response apply specifically to them. The study of the association between mild symptoms of schizophrenia and susceptibility to Forer effects has shown a high correlation. However, Rogers and Soule 2009 studies (see "Variables affecting the effects" above) also tested the astrological beliefs of the subjects. Both Chinese and Western skeptics are more likely to identify ambiguity in Barnum's profile.

Self-serving bias

Self-service bias has been shown to undo the Forer effect. According to self-serving bias, subjects receive positive attributes about themselves while rejecting negative ones. In one study subjects were given one of three personality reports: one consisting of a Barnum profile containing socially desirable personality traits, containing a mixture of positive and negative traits, and the last one containing a profile full of negative traits. (Also called "common error")

Subjects who received desirable and varied social reports were far more likely to approve a personality assessment than the subject receiving a negative report, although there was no significant difference between the first two groups.

In another study, subjects were given a list of features rather than the usual "fake" personality assessment. Subjects were asked to assess how much they perceived these properties applied to them. In line with self-serving bias, the majority of subjects agree with positive traits about themselves and disagree with negative ones. The study concludes that self-serving bias is strong enough to undo the ordinary Forer effect.

Relevance of astrology sign information

In an experiment in 1971 by Bernie I. Silverman, the subject was presented with twelve personality sketches taken from a set of horoscopes and asked to choose the four that best describe it. When descriptions are not identified by astrological signs, subjects are less likely to choose horoscopes for their own marks. When the description is labeled by a sign, however, subjects are more likely to choose a horoscope for their own marks.

Relevance of birth date information

C. R. Snyder and R. J. Shenkel conducted a study in which they asked their students to prepare a uniform Barnum description for a group of subjects; this description is then presented to study participants under cover as individual horoscopes. Subjects in one group are not asked for personal information; those in the second group were asked to give their birth month; those in the third group were asked for the exact date of their birth. Those in the third group are more likely to say that their "horoscopes" are applied to them; those in the first group are least likely to do so.

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Utilize effect

In 1977, Ray Hyman wrote about the way in which palm readers and other hucksters exploit the Forer effect to take advantage of the victim (or 'sign'). He gives a list of factors that help these fraudsters to deceive their prey. For example, hucksters are more likely to succeed if they exude confidence ("If you look and act as if you believe in what you do, you will be able to sell even bad reading for most of your subjects"), if they "use creative use of the latest statistics abstracts, polls, and surveys "showing" what subclasses our society believes, does, wants, worries, and so on ", if they use" gimmicks, like crystal balls, tarot cards, or line reading hand, "if they are aware of the instructions given about their clients with details such as their" clothing, jewelry, behavior, and speech "if they are not afraid of" bumping into them, "and if they use flattery.

Michael Birnbaum, a professor of psychology at California State University, Fullerton, has noted that the Forer effect is used by magicians and paranormals when they give the so-called "cold readings", as well as by certain TV personalities who claim psychoanalytical skills and admit it. to be able to diagnose guest psychological problems within minutes. "True psychologists are horrified by this practice," Birnbaum said, but they failed to criticize him loudly in public, thus being treated with improper respect. "It is regrettable that academic psychology has not paid much attention to cold reading techniques," Denis Dutton wrote in 1988, "because the widespread practice of successful cold reading forms the basis for many beliefs in paranormal forces to be found in today's society." While academic psychologists have focused in their studies on students, Dutton called for "analysis of the techniques and actual methods used by the cool readers proficient".

Article 2016 explains to marketers how to use the Forer effect to win customers. The main advice is to use flattery.

"The morale of the Barnum Demonstration," Birnbaum said, is that "Self validation is not validated.Don't be fooled by a psychotherapist, a fainting psychic, or a false healer who uses this trick on you! Be skeptical and ask for proof Save your money in your wallet You, your wallet in your pocket, and your hand in your wallet. "

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See also

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Ã,§Ã, Criticism
• Confirmation bias
• List of cognitive biases
• The law of a very large number
• Placebo
• Think, Fast and Slow

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References

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External links

• The Error of Personal Validation: Class Demonstration on Order By: Bertram R. Forer (Full Text)
• Skeptic's Dictionary: the Forer effect

Source of the article : Wikipedia