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Topic: Forer effect

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	Forer effect
		The Forer effect refers to the tendency of people to rate sets of statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements could apply to many people.
		Forer gave a personality test to his students, ignored their answers, and gave each student the above evaluation.
		The most common explanations given to account for the Forer effect are in terms of hope, wishful thinking, vanity and the tendency to try to make sense out of experience, though Forer's own explanation was in terms of human gullibility.
	skepdic.com /forer.html (1216 words)

	Forer effect - One Language (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		The Forer effect (also called the Barnum effect after P.T. Barnum) is an effect based on self-validation of personality descriptions, where an individual gives a high rating to a positive description that supposedly applies specifically to himself.
		The Forer effect provides an apparent explanation why many people accept some pseudosciences, such as astrology, graphology and fortune telling.
		The Forer effect has been known to be used heavily in horoscopes in various publications as a way to entice readers into believing in astrology and its powers of prediction.
	www.onelang.com /encyclopedia/index.php/Forer_effect (402 words)

	Forer Effect - SkepticWiki (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		The Forer Effect, named after the psychologist and discoverer B. Forer, refers to the tendency of people to believe that a vague and general description applies specifically to them.
		In his experiments, Forer gave a personality test to a large pool of undergraduate students, then gave them (as the "results" of the test) each the exact same personality analysis, complied largely from a newspaper horoscope.
		The most common explanation for the Forer effect is a combination of wishful thinking and the mental equivalent of pareidolia, the tendency to see patterns in things.
	www.skepticwiki.org /wiki/index.php/Forer_Effect (489 words)

	List_of_cognitive_biases - Thagodz Wiki (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		Polarization effect - increase in strength of belief on both sides of an issue after presentation of neutral or mixed evidence, resulting from biased assimilation of the evidence.
		Subadditivity effect - the tendency to judge probability of the whole to be less than the probabilities of the parts.
		Forer effect (aka Barnum Effect) - the tendency to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.
	www.thagodz.com /search/wiki/?title=List_of_cognitive_biases (1687 words)

	Ψ 10 years HANDANALYSIS RESEARCH: handanalysis psychology & handanalysis experiments
		True to his word, one week later Forer gave each student what appeared to be a personalized interpretation: a typed personality sketch with the student's own name written on the top.
		After Forer's experiment, psychology students have been invited frequently to participate in likewise experiments and the average result is still about to be 4.2.
		Possibly the effect of a handanalysis consultation is also determined by the circumstances which are being created by the handanalyst.
	www.handresearch.com /hand/Evolutie/psychoEngels.htm (1512 words)

	Forer effect - Psychology Wiki
		Barnum) is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.
		The Forer effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some pseudosciences, such as astrology, graphology and fortune telling.
		The Forer effect is used heavily in horoscopes in various publications as a way to entice readers into believing in astrology and its powers of prediction.
	psychology.wikia.com /wiki/Barnum_effect (503 words)

	Vagueness, The Forer Effect, & Confirmation Bias
		The effect is also known as the Barnum effect (named for P. Barnum of circus fame who was extremely good at getting people to believe what he wanted them to) and as the subjective validation or personal validation effect.
		It is these parts of the profile, the ones that match who a person thinks or hopes (see the information on the Forer effect above) he or she is, that confirm his or her self-image and thus are taken as evidence for the accuracy of the profile in question.
		So when taken altogether, the vagueness and generality of the descriptions used in the profiles provided by astrology, the Forer effect, and confirmation bias have a tendency to make the generic descriptions (especially the positive ones) seem as though they accurately and specifically describe the individual person for whom it was supposedly generated.
	www.jaarondaniel.com /Teaching/forer.htm (2177 words)

	Astrology - SkepticWiki (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		Astrology, by contrast, is concerned with divination and prediction of the effects on human lives.
		Another effect of precession is that the ecliptic now intersects the constellation Ophiuchus, not included in the zodiac.
		Had astrology been a rigorous, formal, and theoretically-based enterprise, we might imagine a similar scenario: astrologers would notice that their predictions were not quite accurate, and to explain the discrepancy, it would be necessary to suppose a new planet.
	www.skepticwiki.org /wiki/index.php/Astrology (2242 words)

	Woordenboek van de Scepticus - Forer-effect
		Forer gaf een persoonlijkheidstest aan zijn studenten, negeerde hun antwoorden, en gaf aan elke student de beoordeling die u hierboven kunt lezen.
		Kortom, Forer overtuigde mensen dat hij in staat was hun karakter te lezen.
		Forers eigen verklaring, echter, was er een van menselijke lichtgelovigheid.
	nederlands.skepdic.com /dict_forer.htm (1306 words)

	Pierre Ysewijn - The Barnum Effect (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		But before telling you what the Barnum effect is all about, let's do a quick test (less than 5 minutes) that will allow you to get a better insight in who you really are and how you function.
		Forer's experiment has been repeated several times since 1949 with some variations and results are always very similar.
		The Barnum effect is also studied in the field of paranormal psychology.
	mypage.bluewin.ch /Ysewijn/english_Barnum.htm (841 words)

	Ψ 10 jaar HANDANALYSE ONDERZOEK: handanalyse psychologie & handanalyse experimenten.
		In 1948 nodigde Forer zijn studenten uit om een persoonlijkheidstest te ondergaan.
		Forer stelde zijn studenten vervolgens in het vooruitzicht dat zij een week later een beknopte samenvatting zouden ontvangen van hun persoonlijkheid gebaseerd op de uitkomsten van de test.
		Het experiment van Forer is vele malen herhaald met psychologie studenten, en de gemiddelde uitkomst ligt nog steeds in de orde van 4.2.
	www.handresearch.com /hand/Evolutie/psycho.htm (1446 words)

	666 You Who?
		The Forer (or Barnum) effect is also known as the subjective validation effect or the personal validation effect.The expression, 'the Barnum effect,' seems to have originated with psychologist Paul Meehl, in deference to circus man P.T. Barnum's reputation as a master psychological manipulator.
		Forer gave a personality test to his students, ignored their answers, and gave each student a copy of a page that he had randomly selected from a horoscope book.
		He asked them to rate the evaluation from 0 to 5, with '5' meaning the recipient felt the evaluation was an 'excellent' assessment and '4' meaning the assessment was 'good.' The class average evaluation was 4.26.
	www.vault.com /blojsom/blog/bridgepicker (1055 words)

	Personal Validation Fallacy
		This effect increases if we trust the source of the 'analysis' and believe that it is customized just for us.
		It is also called the Barnum effect, after the old Barnum circus, because of the way that fortune tellers will amaze us with their accuracy by using broad terms based on a simple assessment of us.
		Forer gave students a 'personality test' and then gave them all the same general analysis, based on an combination of horoscopes.
	changingminds.org /explanations/theories/person_validation.htm (256 words)

	Denis Dutton on Cold Reading
		But the fact that Forer had obtained his generalized personality description not from standard texts in personality theory but from a newsstand astrology book indicated that the Barnum Effect might be significant in contexts far beyond the clinical.
		Slight variations on the orginal Forer description have been used in numerous studies in the l950s, 60s, and 70s, all in one form or another replicating the remarkable susceptibility of subjects to the Barnum Effect.
		Subjects, from Forer’s original experiment to the present time, would then presumably be more willing to term such descriptions “average” in applying to their own personalities.
	www.denisdutton.com /cold_reading.htm (6300 words)

	The Forer Effect
		In much the same way that new age professionals are vulnerable to believing inaccurate information due to the Forer Effect, skeptics are just as prone to their own biased perceptions.
		Thus the Forer Effect does not disprove the accuracy of any field - It only establishes that people share many personality traits, one of which is in being rather naieve.
		At first glance the Forer Effect seems to give exactly the evidence needed to expose palm reading as a mere scam, but on deeper examination it does not actually disprove the accuracy of any "pseudoscience".
	www.humanhand.com /forereffect.html (824 words)

	Enneagram Theory: Does It Work?
		This is known as the "Forer effect" (Carrol, Forer effect).
		In 1948, Forer gave a personality test to his students, ignored their answers, and presented each unsuspecting student with an identical analysis gleaned from a newspaper astrology column.
		The Forer effect shows that people tend to accept generalized descriptions of their personalities without realizing that the same evaluation could apply to nearly anyone else (Carrol, Forer effect).
	homepages.ius.edu /RVEST/enneagram.htm (919 words)

	Beware of "Barnum and Forer Effects" in Organizational Assessments. - Thursday, 21st September 2006 at ...
		Barnum Effect is the name given to a type of subjective validation in which a person finds personal meaning in statements that could actually apply to many people.
		The difference between the Barnum and Forer Effects is that the former describes a vague statement, whereas the latter describes how people react psychologically to a Barnum (or vague) statements.
		Forer convinced many people he could accurately assess their character traits with a profile like this — even though the personality profile he gave was not derived from a legitimate personality assessment but rather was borrowed from a newsstand astrology column and presented to his students without regard to their sun sign.
	www.4hoteliers.com /4hots_fshw.php?mwi=1615 (2671 words)

	Alternative Network Directory - The Forer Effect
		The Forer Effect (also called the Barnum Effect or Subjective Validation Effect) refers to the tendency to accept vague or general statements as being very personal and accurate.
		The Forer Effect is a serious consideration in hand analysis, for both the professional and client.
		Psychologist Bertram R. Forer ran a series of tests in which he gave people a personality profile and asked them to rate its accuracy.
	www.and-world.com /content/view/159/2 (372 words)

	New Zealand Cults, Sects, Religions, Christian Organisations, and other groups
		The effects of brainwashing are normally short-lived when the torture (or threat thereof) is removed.
		Placebos are used in new drug trials to compare the effect of the drug itself with the results simply due to the expectation that the drug will work.
		The placebo effect is not limited to just pills - the effect has also been noticed with inert objects held by the patient (eg, rocks) and physical excercises or rituals.
	www.cults.co.nz /glossary.php (2586 words)

	Stats: Establishing validity and reliability
		We examine the effect that errors in the recorded values of E (which we denote by E*) have on inferences of an association between disease and the risk factor.
		The Mozart Effect is a term coined by Alfred A. Tomatis for the alleged increase in brain development that occurs in children under age 3 when they listen to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
		Adverse effects were consistently seen at levels as low as 0.5 oz absolute alcohol/day (the equivalent of 7 drinks per week) based on maternal antenatal report.
	www.childrens-mercy.org /stats/plan/validity.asp (11073 words)

	Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Meyer-Briggs Personality Profiles
		But you wouldn't think it was because of the Forer effect even if it really was (as long as it is composed well and you're not trained in recognizing cold reading tactics), so that's not really an effective test.
		The Forer effect generally is explained by reference to wishful thinking, hope and vanity - we all wish that we were strong people with leadership qualities and therefore when we are described that way, we assume it to be true, and so forth.
		The fact that the Forer effect is real (and it certainly is) doesn't mean that there is no such thing as a reasonably honest self-evaluation.
	scienceblogs.com /dispatches/2005/11/meyerbriggs_personality_profil.php (4325 words)

	TheDemon's Jumble Book of Shadows
		This is known as the piezoelectric effect and was discovered in 1880 by Pierre and Jacques Curie.
		Other technological developments had to occur before the piezoelectric effect could be put to use, however, and it was not until the 1950s that the piezoelectric effect could be put to general use in record player needles and a variety of measuring devices.
		The piezoelectric effect, however, does not give crystals healing or protective power, despite the claims of those who use and sell crystals in New Age and neo-pagan occultist shops.
	www.thedemonsjumble.com /BoS/6x11-info-crystals.htm (691 words)

	target question set #4
		Forer gave a personality test to a large group of students and then collected them.
		The personal validation effect works because when given vague information, a person is likely to mold the information to fit himself because he unconsciously want to believe the insights are true.
		She may recall that a man from the office called her the other day, or she may have a husband who is a workaholic and always on the phone.
	www.msu.edu /~jeanjess/set4.html (768 words)

	A support network for victims, Santeria, Lukumi, Palo, Ifa, Voodoo, Vodou, Spiritualism, related religions.
		The Barnum effect describes how a general personality profile that fits everyone will be accepted as accurate when given to an individual, especially if it is tied to some individuating or credible source such as birth date or personality test results.
		Forer was studying what he called the fallacy of personal validation.
		The Barnum effect got its name from P.T. Barnum's idea that you should have a "little something for everyone." One of the keys to the success of the effect is that most of the statements in a profile could apply to anyone even though the statements may appear to be specific or unique.
	thebelievers.freeservers.com /coldreading.htm (5252 words)

	Derren Brown - Subtle skills - Seeing the future
		The eminent psychologist, B R Forer conducted a series of tests to investigate what he termed the 'Barnum effect', and concluded that 'people tend to accept vague and general personality descriptions as uniquely applicable to themselves without realising that the same description could be applied to just about anyone.'
		Handing out the same personality description to each of his students, Forer asked them to mark the accuracy of the description in relation to their character on a scale of 0 to 5, with 5 signifying an excellent assessment.
		Describes the work of psychologist B R Forer who concluded that people accept vague personality descriptions as uniquely applicable to themselves without realising that they could be describing just about anyone.
	www.channel4.com /entertainment/tv/microsites/M/mindcontrol/subtle/clairvoyance.html (745 words)

	OEDILF - Word Lookup
		The Barnum effect (also known as the Forer effect or the personal validation fallacy) is the tendency in humans to believe that a personality analysis purporting to be about them specifically is correct.
		Psychologist Bertram Forer (1914—2000) showed the same profile, culled from horoscopes, to a number of students, telling them it had been based on a personality test they had taken.
		The effect is named after P.T. Barnum (1810—1891), an American showman, who is (erroneously) credited with coining the expression, "There's a sucker born every minute."
	www.oedilf.com /db/Lim.php?Word=Forer+effect (290 words)

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