Forer effect
Another name for Barnum effect
The tendency to rate vague, general personality descriptions as highly accurate for us personally. It is named after psychologist Bertram Forer, who showed it using a personality test, and is another name for the Barnum effect.
In everyday life
Everyone in a workshop gets the 'personalized' results of a personality quiz, and most rate theirs as a great fit, unaware that all the reports say the same thing.
A career coach hands you a 'custom' profile saying you value security but crave change, and you are amazed at how well it captures you, until a friend shows you the identical profile.
Why your mind does this
To act at all, we need some belief that our choices matter and that we can pull them off. A bit of extra confidence gets us moving, keeps us going after setbacks, and protects our sense of self-worth and our standing in a group.
Its family, in 30 seconds: Confidence to act
How to spot it
Ask whether the description would fit your friends just as well as it fits you.
How to counter it
Swap your results with someone else's and see whether theirs fits you just as well.
Same family: Confidence to act
- Overconfidence effect
- Social desirability bias
- Third-person effect
- False consensus effect
- Hard-easy effect
- Lake Wobegon effect
- Dunning-Kruger effect
- Egocentric bias
- Optimism bias
- Forer effect
- Barnum effect
- Self-serving bias
- Actor-observer bias
- Illusion of control
- Illusory superiority
- Fundamental attribution error
- Defensive attribution hypothesis
- Trait ascription bias
- Effort justification
- Risk compensation
- Peltzman effect
SourcesForer (1949)·Wikipedia