Psychologist

Ever heard of the Barnum effect? This form of cognitive bias, first highlighted by American psychologist Bertram Forer, suggests that we’re only too happy to accept vague descriptions as being specific to our personalities so long as they’re positive. In 1948, the psychologist gave his students a personality test. Under the guise of “personalised” results, he actually gave everyone the same short description, which he took from little generic horoscopes. For example, “you have weaknesses in your personality, but you generally know how to compensate for them”. Or “you have considerable potential that you’re not yet using to your advantage”. The result? Invited to give the relevance of his “personalised analysis” a score out of 5, the students arrived at an average score of 4.26.