Do You Have Some Unrealistic Aspirations?
You have been a victim of this illusion!
How much do you think these statements give an apt description of your personality?
- You have a great need for other people to like and admire you.
- You have a great deal of unused capacity, which you have not turned to your advantage.
- You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.
- At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times, you are introverted, wary, and reserved.
- Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside.
If you think these questions uniquely defined you, you have fallen prey to the Barnum effect.
These questions were part of the research conducted by Prof. Bertram R. Ferer in his classroom in 1949.
In his experiment, he took a personality test of students and, a week later, gave them the results on a sheet that uniquely explained their personality.
The secret was, that the sheets he gave students were exactly the same!
The students were asked to rate how well the statements described them on a scale of 0(Not accurate) to 5(Very accurate). The average score obtained from the class was 4.3.
And yes! The title of this article is also one of the statements from the original research!
Barnum effect, also known as the Forer effect explains the tendency of the people to believe a piece of information, that is generic in nature, applies specifically to them.
The name of this effect came from a 20th-century entertainer named P.T. Barnum. He was also the inspiration behind the Huge Jackman movie, The Greatest Showman.
He is famous for his quote,
“A sucker is born every minute.”
It refers to the gullible nature of people and the desire to believe the positive things they are told about themselves.
Barun effect is a cognitive bias and it relies on our tendency to ascribe personal meaning to vague positive statements.
It is also related to subjective validation, another cognitive bias which is the human tendency to consider a statement accurate if there is a personal meaning to it.
For example, if you love tea, you are more likely to believe any article that explains the benefits of having tea. It gives validation to an existing favorable choice.
Horoscopes are the oldest form where this bias is used to make vague future predictions. According to one source, the oldest known horoscope is over 2000 years old.
The entire industry relies on information that is vague and specific at the same time.
They are getting advanced too!
I wanted to give an example of how horoscope reading gives vague but specific statements so I checked it while writing this article.
My horoscope reading for June 10, 2022, from astrology.com, says, “these times are conducive for growing your social media following.”
Who does not want social media following in 2022? How likely it is that a person reading astrology on the internet is not using any social media platform?
In truth, it is just the Barnum effect.
Psychic reading and Tarot cards are also examples of the same.
Another use that has now come into the picture is the personalized section on many websites. Netflix has a “recommended for you” section. Spotify has a “Made for Aditya” section.
Often, it is just a psychological play. If it says it is especially for me, I am more likely to check it.
There might be songs in this playlist that I like but also songs that I don’t like.
Due to the Barnum effect, I am more likely to believe how they have collected the best songs for me ignoring the music that I just skipped or did not like.
The Barnum effect has been studied since the 1950s. It still exists today.
It is widely used due to the gullibility of people and the underlying biases present in human nature.
It can mislead you into believing a person, buying unnecessary products, or making a bad decision in life.
Even though just the knowledge of the effect does not make us immune to the bias, it does give a head start.
Let me know your experience with the Barnum effect and what you think about it.
Stay tuned for more.
References:
- The fallacy of personal validation; a classroom demonstration of gullibility — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18110193/
- Why do we believe our horoscopes? — https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/barnum-effect
- https://www.livescience.com/17943-oldest-astrologer-board-zodiac.html
