What if I tell you that I can give a very precise description of your personality?
The following text is tailor-made for you, dear reader, so please take a moment to read it carefully.
You want others to know you and like you. He tends to be critical of himself and often doubts whether he has made the right decision. He has great potential that he hasn’t always tapped into. Although he has some flaws, he constantly strives to improve. Sometimes he can be very sociable and outgoing, while other times he is introverted and prefers to be alone. You prefer change and variety and don’t like to feel limited, but you also seek security in life. You pride yourself on being an independent thinker and do not accept the claims of others without convincing proof. It seems unwise to him to be too honest in revealing himself to others.
What do you think? Have we done a good job?
We hope that you have felt in some way identified with this text. But do not worry. It’s not some terrifying artificial intelligence spying on you, at least not yet. It is science.
What if I told you now that the text you just read is not personalized at all, but is actually the same text for everyone? Just a very general description that most people tend to relate to. But why?
It is because you have just fallen victim to one of many so-called cognitive biases. This is called the Barnum effect. Our mind plays tricks on us all the time.
The Barnum effect, also called the Forer effect, is behind this little experiment we just did here and behind horoscopes, Tarot cards, palm reading, etc…
The Barnum Effect
This effect or bias causes people to falsely believe that these personality descriptions or predictions are accurate when in fact they are nearly universal and could apply to anyone.
And, more importantly and worryingly, it makes us believe that the method or the person behind those vague claims and predictions is authentic or even that they may even have supernatural powers. For example, making us believe in horoscopes and astrology, which have no evidence.
What is behind the Barnum effect?
The reason we can all easily relate to those general descriptions is because we all have those traits, just to varying degrees.
It is not the lack or the presence of these characteristics that defines you, but to what extent you have them. Therefore, saying that “sometimes he can be an introvert and sometimes an extrovert” is like saying that a person has a heart and two lungs.. Well of course I do.
Another thing that comes into play here is that we generally tend to prefer positive and personal ideas or statements and reject negative and less personal ones. This broader cognitive bias is called subjective or personal validation and is closely related to the Barnum effect.
how people deceive us
Cognitive biases are unconscious errors that our brain makes that somehow distort our perception of reality. They can cause us to have prejudices or stereotypes, that we believe wrong information, that we look for news and articles that confirm our opinion, that we misjudge information and people, or, more simply, that we are “irrational”.
But not everything is bad. What happens is that cognitive biases help us make sense of this complex world and make faster or more effective decisions in some situations that may require it. Although we probably won’t get rid of these biases, being aware of them is probably a good thing.
What if I tell you that I can give a very precise description of your personality?
The following text is tailor-made for you, dear reader, so please take a moment to read it carefully.
You want others to know you and like you. He tends to be critical of himself and often doubts whether he has made the right decision. He has great potential that he hasn’t always tapped into. Although he has some flaws, he constantly strives to improve. Sometimes he can be very sociable and outgoing, while other times he is introverted and prefers to be alone. You prefer change and variety and do not like to feel limited, but you also seek security in life. You pride yourself on being an independent thinker and do not accept the claims of others without convincing proof. It seems unwise to him to be too honest in revealing himself to others.
What do you think? Have we done a good job?
We hope that you have felt in some way identified with this text. But do not worry. It’s not some terrifying artificial intelligence spying on you, at least not yet. It is science.
What if I told you now that the text you just read is not personalized at all, but is actually the same text for everyone? Just a very general description that most people tend to relate to. But why?
It is because you have just fallen victim to one of many so-called cognitive biases. This is called the Barnum effect. Our mind plays tricks on us all the time.
The Barnum effect, also called the Forer effect, is behind this little experiment we just did here and behind horoscopes, Tarot cards, palm reading, etc…
The Barnum Effect
This effect or bias causes people to falsely believe that these personality descriptions or predictions are accurate when in fact they are nearly universal and could apply to anyone.
And, more importantly and worryingly, it makes us believe that the method or the person behind those vague claims and predictions is authentic or even that they may even have supernatural powers. For example, making us believe in horoscopes and astrology, which have no evidence.
What is behind the Barnum effect?
The reason we can all easily relate to those general descriptions is because we all have those traits, just to varying degrees.
It is not the lack or the presence of these characteristics that defines you, but to what extent you have them. Therefore, saying that “sometimes he can be an introvert and sometimes an extrovert” is like saying that a person has a heart and two lungs.. Well of course I do.
Another thing that comes into play here is that we generally tend to prefer positive and personal ideas or statements and reject negative and less personal ones. This broader cognitive bias is called subjective or personal validation and is closely related to the Barnum effect.
how people deceive us
Cognitive biases are unconscious errors that our brain makes that somehow distort our perception of reality. They can cause us to have prejudices or stereotypes, that we believe wrong information, that we look for news and articles that confirm our opinion, that we misjudge information and people, or, more simply, that we are “irrational”.
But not everything is bad. What happens is that cognitive biases help us make sense of this complex world and make faster or more effective decisions in some situations that may require it. Although we probably won’t get rid of these biases, being aware of them is probably a good thing.
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