Why People Believe Horoscopes and Mediums (The Barnum Effect)

Psych Papers

The Barnum Effect is the tendency for people to accept vague and general personality descriptions as highly accurate and personally meaningful. “Barnum statements” are general characterizations that people believe to be true about themselves, even though these statements could apply to just about anyone. It’s commonly exploited in astrology / horoscopes, fortune telling, psychics, mediums, tarot card readers, palm readers, and other con artists.

Bertram Forer identified the effect in 1948 with a classic psychological study which gave people personality surveys followed by bogus personality feedback. Every participant received the exact same personality feedback which they rated to be highly accurate of them.

Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the Barnum Effect and how it can be exploited by scamsters.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

Kapitel

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. What is the Barnum Effect? (Part 1) (00:01:20)

3. Psychology is putting fancy labels to things we already know (00:02:13)

4. What is the Barnum Effect? (Part 2) (00:03:06)

5. Do we believe in horoscopes? (00:03:57)

6. Carl "Synchronicity" Jung (00:05:38)

7. Have we ever experienced any coincidences? (00:07:18)

8. Origin of the Barnum Name (00:09:16)

9. Universal Character Traits (00:10:36)

10. How to study the Barnum Effect (00:13:34)

11. Why the Barnum Effect is problematic, and by the way you're the problem here (00:15:35)

12. Findings from replication studies (00:17:09)

13. Certain people are more prone to the Barnum Effect (00:18:11)

14. Chris has seen ads for ONLINE PSYCHIC READINGS (00:18:40)

15. Joseph's Mom's Ex-Boyfriend went to a psychic to see if his mom was cheating on him (00:19:18)

16. How to manipulate people using the Barnum effect by Dr. Christopher Cole (00:21:24)

17. What have we learned, kids (00:22:40)