Forer Effect
From SkepticWiki
Contents |
[edit] Definition
The Forer Effect, named after the psychologist and discoverer B. R. Forer, refers to the tendency of people to believe that a vague and general description applies specifically to them. It has been suggested that much of the apparent effectiveness (and popularity) of pseudoscience personality metrics such as astrology, graphology, and other forms of divination are due to the Forer effect.
Synonyms for the Forer effect include the Barnum effect (after the master showman P.T. Barnum) or the personal validation effect.
[edit] History
In his experiments, Forer gave a personality test to a large pool of undergraduate students, then gave them (as the "results" of the test) each the exact same personality analysis, complied largely from a newspaper horoscope.
[edit] The "Analysis" Given
You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.
[edit] Experimental Results
Students however, rated the results of this analysis to be both highly personal and extremely accurate. (On a five-point scale, with 0 being "very poor" and 5 being "excellent," students rated this at an average of 4.26 as applied to themselves.
[edit] Discussion
It should be obvious that the description as given applies broadly to every human being alive throughout history; who among us does not have "some personality weaknesses?" However, we are all "generally able to compensate for them" or we wouldn't be members of society -- we'd be dead or hospitalized.
The most common explanation for the Forer effect is a combination of wishful thinking and the mental equivalent of pareidolia, the tendency to see patterns in things. In particular, humans tend to see vague statements as true, by self-deception : remembering cases and circumstances where they were true and forgetting other circumstances.
[edit] Psychological Literature
- Dickson, D.H. and I.W. Kelly. "The 'Barnum Effect' in Personality Assessment: A Review of the Literature," Psychological Reports, 1985, 57, 367-382.
- Forer, B.R.. (1949) "The Fallacy of Personal Validation: A classroom Demonstration of Gullibility," Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 44, 118-121.
- Hyman, Ray. "'Cold Reading': How to Convince Strangers That You Know All About Them," The Skeptical Inquirer Spring/Summer 1977.
