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forer effect

The Forer effect, also known as the Barnum effect, is a psychological phenomenon where individuals perceive vague and general personality descriptions as highly accurate for themselves. An experiment demonstrated this by having students rate identical personality sketches, which were derived from a general astrology book, with an average accuracy rating of 4.30. The effect highlights human gullibility and the tendency to favor positive feedback over negative.

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Clara Linares Ruiz
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13 views

forer effect

The Forer effect, also known as the Barnum effect, is a psychological phenomenon where individuals perceive vague and general personality descriptions as highly accurate for themselves. An experiment demonstrated this by having students rate identical personality sketches, which were derived from a general astrology book, with an average accuracy rating of 4.30. The effect highlights human gullibility and the tendency to favor positive feedback over negative.

Uploaded by

Clara Linares Ruiz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FORER EFFECT

Have you ever read the horoscope or done a personality test and felt like they were totally
describing you? Well, there might be an explanation for that... The Barnum effect, also
called the Forer effect, is a common psychological phenomenon whereby individuals give
high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored
speci fically to them, that are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of
people.

How many of these statements can you relate to?

1. You have a great need for other people to like and admire you.
2. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.
3. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage.
4. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.
5. Your sexual adjustment has presented problems for you.
6. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside.
7. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
8. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatis fied when hemmed in by restrictions
and limitations.
9. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory
proof.
10. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others.
11. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved.
12. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic.
13. Security is one of your major goals in life.

On average, the students rated its accuracy as 4.30 on a scale of 0 (very poor) to 5
(excellent). Only after the ratings were turned in was it revealed that each student had
received an identical sketch assembled by Forer from a newsstand astrology book. The
sketch contains statements that are vague and general enough to apply to most people.
Forer attributed the effect to gullibility. The effect has been said to con firm the so-called
"Pollyanna principle", which states that individuals tend "to use or accept positive words of
feedback more frequently than negative words of feedback."

TRANSLATIONS:

1. Se ha comentado que podría haber un pequeño esbozo que el artista borró porque
no había quedado satisfecho con el resultado. Pero es difícil probarlo sin estropear
la pintura.

2. Nadie puede hacer esto; pero esta medida no se aplica a los niños, no?

3. Eso que ahora llamamos “healthy” ha existido toda la vida! Es más o menos lo
mismo que la “cocina de la abuela”.

4. El sastre me hizo un vestido especialmente para mi.

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