The tendency to take as truth the words of the oracles, ancient or modern, is known in psychology as the Forer effect or the Barnum effect. Psychologists define it as the fact of believing that certain statements characterize us personally, while in fact they are applicable to a large number of individuals, because in reality they are vague and generic. With this Psychology-Online article we will try to better understand the Forer or Barnum effect, what it is and some examples that describe it.
Phineas Taylor Barnum was born on July 5, 1810 in the United States of America and was a great circus businessman, owner and director of the circus called "The greatest show in the world". He is famous for being a good publicist in his time, a crowd manipulator, to the point of describing himself as a great mystifier. His circus was famous because anyone could find something fun there: the attractions that he proposed in the show were so numerous and varied that there was something for everyone.
The expression Barnum effect was created by Paul Meehl who, in the 1950s, had made research on the validity of psychological tests used in institutes psychiatric. He had detected, in the reports of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, the high frequency of expressions such as "
The expression was then used to designate not only test results, but also test results. statements of astrologers, graphologists, psychoanalysts, morphopsychologists, numerologists, etc. based on the same principle. Even today, psychological practices (including those that seem scientific) take great advantage of the Barnum effect; an inexhaustible source of success for imposters.
The Forer or Barnum effect, also called the fallacy of personal validation, consists of Believe that a description fits your person exactly when the reality is a generic explanation it could adapt to many situations and be consistent with many people.
The Forer or Barnum effect has been the subject of numerous experiments that lead everyone in the same direction, and one of the most cited is that of Forer (that's why the Forer effect is sometimes talked about instead of Barnum): this psychology teacher has provided 39 of his University of California students with an analysis of his personality, after having them tested. In reality, he gave each of them the same horoscope text found in a popular magazine. Each of the students had been invited to judge the accuracy of the relationship on a scale of 0 to 5, where 5 was for "excellent" and 4 for "good"; the mean score was 4.26.
A practical example of the Forer or Barnum effect is found with horoscopes: twelve types of events psycho-physical, one for each zodiac sign, enough to describe billions of people in the world. Anyone can read the horoscope and think it was reasonable and quite accurate, and then discovering that he had read the wrong zodiac sign indications. Well, horoscopes take advantage of precisely the effect in question, that is, the tendency we have to accept vague descriptions as if they were tailor-made for us.
- Peter Glick and his collaborators found, from a group of 200 students aged 15 to 18, that the skeptics of astrology they received from a supposed astrologer a flattering description His personality changed their minds and came to think that perhaps there was something interesting or true in this "science."
- To be widely accepted, the Barnum profile does not need to be carried out by a prestigious expertIn an experiment conducted at the University of Illinois, one group of students was tested by a respected professor, and another by a psychology student. After receiving their "analysis", the students were invited to judge their suitability using a scale of 0 to 5; the mean score was 4.38 for the first and 4.05 for the second.
This mental trap seems to explain why so many people take for granted that the predictions of astrologers, magicians, cartographers, graphologists, and seers are so accurate; we actually make one size fits all dresses. Such an effect is triggered by a set of psychological mechanisms:
- We want to believe the good about ourselves. One of the causes of the Forer effect is the wishful thinking (that is, to consider what one would want it to be true) Self-deception and vanity lead us to accept the observations that others (or a horoscope) make about our character, as we wish those observations to be true, thinking that they apply exclusively to us themselves.
- We need everything to have an explanation. We have a tendency to find an explanation and a meaning to things, even where the meaning is vague, general and sometimes contradictory.
- When we believe something, we look for examples to confirm it. For example, if those born under any zodiac sign define themselves as "critical of themselves", it is easy for any of them to have had to do self-criticism; is a cognitive process known as confirmation bias, which makes people accept the information that confirms their conviction, rejecting others. Given the multiplicity of situations experienced in the past, the diversity of behaviors adopted and their possible interpretations, it is easy to remember the concrete illustrations that "confirm" the traits and tendencies in question.
- We believe what others believe. In general, if the Forer or Barnum effect is used by someone considered to be in authority and followed by a large number of people, the mass perception: "If others believe it, it must be true."
- We want to know everything quickly and easily. A series of mind traps that work, unfortunately, also thanks to the desire for easy answers and rather than investing time and energy to fully understand a situation in all its implications.
- We don't know ourselves well. Subjects particularly sensitive to the Forer or Barnum effect are those who ardently desire to know themselves, those who are deferential, those who doubt themselves and turn to psychology. However, the vast majority of us believe that we can easily find unconscious psychological traits or tendencies in ourselves.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
