Astrology is always a hot topic for many people. But when you say “Exactly, that is me!”, you fall into another psychological trap – Barnum effect.
In TBBT Sheldon defined Penny as a girl who “participate in the mass cultural delusion that the sun’s apparent position relative to arbitrarily defined constellations at the time of your birth somehow affects your personality”. Well, most of us are not as mean as Sheldon though we’re not that believe in it. We treat astrology as an entertainment but we can’t always ignore some analyses and predictions because they seem so true!
Then the Barnum Effect may spoil the fun of astrology analysis.
Bertram R. Forer, a psychologist, used to give a personality test to his students. The students were asked to answer some questions and based on the answers, Bertram analysed the students’ characters:
“You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them… You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others… Security is one of your major goals in life.”
However, he was cheating, because every student got the same analysis. Interestingly, in the satisfaction survey about the test results, the students marked 4.26 out of 5 on average.
Are they the same in characters? Definitely not.
The experiment above is a great example of the Barnum effect: when a person is reading an analysis customised only for him, he just can’t help but trust it, regardless the fact that it can actually be used for anyone in the world.
There are three tips of this trick:
1. Make your object believe that your analysis is just made for him.
2.Give your analysis an authorised identification.
3.More positive remarks than negative ones.
So you see, actually it’s up to you whether believe it or not. It’s just another magic of psychology.
VIVA LA TRIVIA 