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Or as it is also called - the Barnum effect (in honor of the famous swindler and circus performer Phineas Barnum, who is known for his psychological manipulations). Bertram Forer himself is an outstanding psychologist (one of the creators of the MMPI test).
The Barnum-Forer effect is also called the subjective confirmation effect. This is a general observation, on the basis of which people give him a greater assessment of the reliability of the information reported, being confident that this characteristic is of an individual nature.
So, back in 1948, Forer conducted an experiment on students. He invited them to take a special test, after which he will provide each with a complete individual analysis of the personality of each. In fact, no analysis has been carried out. After a certain amount of time (supposedly to process the results), he distributed the results to the students. The result was the same for all. Made it so that no one could spy on the results of another. And he asked to assess the reliability of individual results, where the score "5" is the highest. The average score among the subjects was 4.26. As we can see, the result is quite high.
Text provided to students:
“You have a strong need for love and respect from other people. You tend to be critical of yourself. You have a lot of unrealized potential that you have not used to your advantage. Although you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally successful in compensating for them. You are having difficulty maintaining a regular sex life. When you demonstrate external self-control and self-control, you tend to experience inner anxiety and insecurity. Sometimes you are tormented by doubts as to whether the decision you made was right or whether you did everything that was necessary. You are attracted to certain changes and diversity, and you feel dissatisfied when they try to restrict or impose restrictions on you. You value your independence in thinking and do not accept other people's statements, if they don't have enough hard evidence. You think it is unreasonable to open your soul too deeply to other people. At times you are sociable, affable, sociable, while in other situations you can find yourself immersed in yourself, distrustful, withdrawn. Some of your claims seem rather unrealistic. Safety is one of your main goals in life. "
As we can see, the content is very vague, there is no specificity. This description is very similar to those very "predictions" in the horoscope column of some weekly newspaper. "Sagittarius will be lucky next week, but not all" - a clipping from one magazine says that a person under this sign will be lucky, a person hopes for something positive, but realizes that not all archers will be lucky. Therefore, she is not upset, since nothing negative is foreseen, but it is not critical if something positive does not happen. A person begins to believe that this horoscope speaks the truth and this prediction will come true. And it will really come true - after all, nothing concrete is written in that horoscope clipping.
Forer's text is general in nature that will suit everyone.
This experiment was carried out several times in various variations, but without changing the essence. Often this experiment is used to demonstrate the Forer effect, to show how gullible many people are.
During the experiments, it became known that people consider reliable information that:
- Provided by a status, authoritative person for him;
- Mostly positive;
- This description is only about him.
Some psychics, astrologers, etc., use a similar effect. For example, you came to such a specialist, he asked several questions, made notes and gave an allegedly accurate description of you. Here you understand that everything that has been said is true and accurate, and you begin to trust this specialist even more.
To summarize, a couple of parting words. If you hear and read information written in generalized language, ask clarifying questions.
