Barnum Effect

The Barnum Effect means that people will believe some relatively broad personality descriptions that are applicable to most people and are accurate descriptions of their own personality traits. .

The name Barnum Effect comes from the famous circus nose master P.T. barnum in American history. He is also the prototype of the protagonist of the movie The Greatest Showman. He once said that the reason why his performance is successful is that his program contains elements that everyone likes. Like those general character descriptions, they have universal validity that apply to almost everyone.

Although I have never met you, I understand you. Do you believe it? Do you want to give it a try?

You think it is unwise to reveal yourself too much to others. You have potential and strengths that have yet to be realized. You are an independent thinker and do not easily accept other people's opinions. Sometimes you are outgoing and sociable, but sometimes you just want to find a quiet place to hang out and don't want to talk to anyone.

So, is this you? If you think it’s pretty accurate, then you may know what the Barnum effect is.

Although there is nothing wrong with these sentences in themselves, they are not meaningful in assessing an individual's unique personality traits. The Barnum effect was originally discovered by psychologist Bertram Fowler, so it is also called the Fowler effect.

In 1949, Fowler conducted an experiment in his introductory psychology class. He asked students to take a personality test and then told the students that he would analyze each person individually. Generate a separate personality analysis report for each person.

After the students received their analysis reports, Fowler asked them to evaluate the effectiveness of the report. A score of 0 is completely invalid and a score of 5 is completely valid. Most students think this analysis is very valid.

Among the 39 students, 13 scored 5 points, 25 scored 4 points, and 1 scored 3 points. The average score was as high as 4.3 points.

Is Fowler's personality test really so accurate?

In fact, this is all Fowler's design. Fowler did not conduct an individual analysis of each person. The analysis report received by everyone on the Internet was exactly the same, which was a 13-sentence description of personality, and most of them were extracted from an astrology book in the newspaper by Fowler.

For example, a sense of security is one of your main goals in life. For example, sometimes you will seriously doubt whether you made the right decision or did the right thing.

Why do these analysis reports seem so accurate?

Fowler believes that this is due to a cognitive bias called personal verification or subjective verification, where we tend to generalize combine broad descriptions with ourselves and look for those parts of our past experiences that prove them right.

And we tend to pay more attention to those parts that can verify them, and ignore those parts that show that they are wrong. In addition, people tend to prefer to hear good things said about themselves. Barnum's character descriptions are often more positive, so people tend to believe him.

Personality psychologist Allport once said that one way for personality analysts to succeed is to use vague terms that apply to almost all ordinary people.

So the reason why some personality tests, astrology and fortune telling make people feel very accurate is that they use the Barnum effect to a certain extent. You can listen and laugh, but it is best not to let it affect your correct and rational duties.

How to avoid the Barnum effect?

1. Stay alert and rational

If you think what he said is accurate, then you might as well do the opposite. Think about whether there are any parts that are inconsistent and whether there are any examples of non-compliance.

2. Take some professional psychological personality tests

For example, the Big Five Personality Inventory, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Cattell 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, etc. Well, these tests are based on theoretical and empirical research, and have good reliability and validity. You may wish to give them a try.