Barnum Effect

The Barnum Effect is the name given a psychological process which some psychologists feel explains why people except what they term "pseudoscientific" explanations of events. The process is also called subjective validation effect or the personal validation effect. In the 1940s, one of the more famous demonstrations of the Barnum Effect was made by psychologist B. R. Forer. He gave his class a sophisticated personality but instead of calculating the results he developed a statement from an astrological sun-sign column of a local newspaper. In their confidential psychological report, each student received the following evaluation:

"You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic."

He then asked each student to evaluate their assessment on a scale of one to five (with one being bad and five being excellent. He found that the students accepted their evaluation, the class average being 4.2. Forer assumed human gullibility as the explanation of the student's acceptance of the reading. He argued that a variation of what he demonstrated in his class accounted for the public's acceptance of psychic readers and counselors. His colleagues have argued that his explanation was limited. Other reasons, ranging from human vanity to an attempt to make sense of a very chaotic world, were additional factors.

Forer's test has been repeated numerous times with amazing similar reports on the results. It has not been applied to more general audiences. It is a simple and fairly easy test to administer and calculate results. Other psychologists have offered profiles of more elaborate tests that would the several hypotheses that have arisen for Forer's original test. These generally require a great deal of additional effort by those running the tests and no one has as yet followed up on the suggestions.

In like measure, no longitudinal studies have been done on subjects taking the test to determine what if anything they might do with the test if the nature of the experiment were kept from them. Does it in fact simulate what it purports to do, the mechanism by which a person might visit and accept the words of a fortune teller? Given the rules governing experiments on human subjects, such tests are not likely to be done by Western psychologists in the foreseeable future.

Sources:

Beyerstein, Barry, and Dayle F. Beyerstein, eds. The Write Stuff- Evaluations of Graphology, the Study of Handwriting Analysis. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1991.

Dickson, D.H., and I.W. Kelly."The 'Barnum Effect' in Personality Assessment: A Review of the Literature." Psychological Reports 57 (1985): 367-382.

Forer, B.R. "The Fallacy of Personal Validation: A Classroom Demonstration of Gullibility." Journal of Abnormal Psychology 44 (1949): 118-121.