The Forer Effect or Barnum Effect (Intro Psych Tutorial

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In this video I describe one difficulty of assessing the accuracy of personality tests, which is that people's perceptions of accuracy are subjective. This was demonstrated by Bertram Forer, who gave participants false generic feedback from an assessment which was still rated as highly accurate. This tendency to find personal meaning in vague statements is known as the Forer Effect, or the Barnum Effect, after P.T. Barnum. This effect can also help us to understand the success of astrologers, psychics, and fortune-tellers, who rely on hazy predictions to swindle their victims.

Forer (1949) The Fallacy of Personal Validation: https://web.archive.org/web/201603052...

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