"...pride yourself as an independent thinker"

“On a scale from 0=very poor to 5=excellent, how well does this describe you?”

“You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic. “

We receive these types of analyses and feedbacks various times throughout our lives. We read them in horoscopes, after personality tests and even some fortune cookies give descriptions of our “unique” dispositions. (Today, my fortune told me I was a kind and generous person)

You may find your self to think, “Wow, this sounds so much like me…how does it know?” Turns out, we aren’t as “unique” as we want to believe we are. Bertram Forer performed the same experiment as above to a group of students and found an average rating to be 4.26. (I had given my own rating a 4.5) He called it the “Barnum Effect”.

I learned about this in my Social Psychology class and began to wonder why? I realized it was the way in which they said it. The statements above are so vague and generalized; that you’d have to be a robot not to have at least felt that way once. Using such words as “at times”, “tend” and “sometimes” the reader only has to think of one occasion where they have felt that way in order to feel as if this applies to them.

“You tend to be worrisome on the inside.”

Have you ever became nervous over your upcoming exam or that paper?

“You prefer a certain amount of change.”

Who really enjoys doing the same mundane things over and over again anyway?

“Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.”

Who did you want to be when you grew up, a baseball player or a movie star?

Now I’m not saying that these instances apply to everyone, but the majority of society has felt this way either once or twice. The degree and amount may differ but the feelings all stay the same. This selective word choice is the rhetoric that many astrologers and personality tests designers use. By being ambiguous in their description, the chance of persuading the reader to believe it applies to them increases. This technique can be found in many speeches and commercials in order to relate to the audience. The audience feels more at ease when they feel as if the speaker understands them. This Barnum Effect allows this to happen. You’d be much more apt to buy a product or believe an idea if you knew its intent was to aid the “specific type” of person you are. It’s tricky, I know. Hence why it was named after a circus owner.

I, for one, was pretty disappointed when I began to wonder if the term Virgo really did apply to me specifically. I decided to continue to delve into my shallow pleasures regardless!! But now, I’m just a little more cautious. I won’t break up with my boyfriend just because he’s an Aries or be suckered into buying a medicine that is suggested for someone who is “sometimes sad and tired.” So don’t feel guilty every time you check your horoscope or feel a sense of pride when you get a fortune cookie that says, “You’re a great person.” It’s just important to be aware of these techniques when it is related large-scale purposes such as products endorsements and politics. So, in the meantime, what’s your sign?