Barnum Effect

In 1998 Piper-Terry and Downey found that women accepted friends' bogus test interpretations more readily than did men and the researchers attributed this to women's helpfulness. Layne countered that women are more open and thus rationally expected their friends' interpretations to be more accurate. Later Downey asked participants how accurately they believed their friends could describe their personalities. Although this pilot study's sensitivity to differences was low, the women's accuracy ratings still tended to exceed those of men ( p <.06) as Layne predicted. This may suggest that the rationality hypothesis is better supported than the female-helpfulness hypothesis.

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The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology ◽

10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp482 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 1-3

Author(s):

Gerald M. Rosen

Keyword(s):

Barnum Effect

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The ‘Barnum Effect’ in Personality Assessment: A Review of the Literature

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1985.57.2.367 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 57 (2) ◽

pp. 367-382 ◽

Cited By ~ 56

Author(s):

D. H. Dickson ◽

I. W. Kelly

Keyword(s):

Personality Assessment ◽

Assessment Procedure ◽

Personal Factors ◽

Review Of The Literature ◽

The Subject ◽

Test Administrator ◽

Barnum Effect

This review summarizes to date the research on the Barnum effect, the tendency for people to accept vague, ambiguous, and general statements as descriptive of their unique personalities. Studies examined address interpretation variables of the Barnum profiles in regard to generality and supposed relevance of the interpretation, favorability of interpretation, type of assessment procedure, and origin and format of interpretation. Also the role of personal factors such as characteristics of the subject and test administrator are examined. It is concluded that the level of acceptance of Barnum profiles depends on the relevance and favorability of the profile and to some extent on the type of assessment utilized. Directions for research on the Barnum effect are provided.

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