The Barnum Effect

Some people have always been curious about their own personality. Personality is an individual’s consistent pattern in the behavior and intrapersonal process (Burger, 2011). Though it originates within the individual, there are cases that two different people say they are really alike. They share common characteristics and traits that make them similar to each other and complement each other.

There are also some other cases that generalized characteristics that many people have were claimed by someone. Those general characteristics are the universal validities and people strongly claiming those characteristics were tend to engage in personal validation. Because the information (generalized characteristics) is ambiguous, it may apply to any person (Forer, 1949).

That’s what we call the Barnum effect. It states that general information is applied to themselves. We thought that the generalized characteristics presented to us are exactly our characteristics. We thought that we possessed those traits, not mind that other people have those traits too.

In the Psych150-Personality class, our professor gave homework which will demonstrate the Barnum Effect through the “Person-Tree Test.” The homework asked us to find four participants, consisting of two females and two males, who have not yet taken Psych101. As the handout asked us to do, we administered the test by asking the four participants to draw a person and a tree. Their drawing, as we said to them, would be the basis in knowing and assessing their personality.

I got the two female participants (Lala and Lulu, not their real names) from my community/city-based organization to participate in the experiment last July 25. First, I asked their consent by explaining the objectives of the study and they agreed quickly and willingly. They had no hesitation to engage in the study and started to draw as I finished telling the procedures.

I asked and approached Lala and Lulu at the same time (July 25) at UP Kustura’s tambayan near Vinzons Hall.  I provided each of them with a pen and paper and let them draw there. They were separated before they started drawing so that they won’t copy or look at each other's work.

On the other hand, my two male participants, one from the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) and the other from the College of Engineering (Eng’g), were hesitating to participate at first. They didn’t agree to participate immediately. But as I explained to them the objectives of the experiment and told them that they can reject the result if they want, those two changed their minds and agreed to be part of this.

Participant from CAL did the experiment at Faculty Center (FC). He’s my former classmate in a GE class. He agreed to be my participant with no particular reason or maybe just for the sake of helping me. He drew a simple stick man under the tree and gave it to me. The other participant who’s from College of Eng’g conducted the experiment at our Eng30 classroom before the class started. He passionately drew himself (according to him) sleeping under the tree with branches. He also said to hurry up and assess his personality for he assumed that I will say he’s so cool based on his drawing. Yes, he’s somewhat narcissist like that (kidding).

Because I conducted all those experiments on the same day, I decided to debrief them all on the same day too (except for Eng’g student). I promised them to give the interpretations the next day. I reasoned out that I need to consult my notes to assess their personality accurately. I added also that I will carefully analyze the smallest details of their work so I need enough time. Fortunately, they all agreed and wait for the next day. At that night, I typed the fabricated interpretations and printed them as I have supposed to do. Below is the list of interpretations we chose to give to our participants (according to their number in the handout):

1. You have a need for other people to like and admire you.

2. You tend to be critical of yourself.

3. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.

4. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage.

6. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you made the right decision or did the right thing.

10. At times you are extraverted and sociable, while at other times you are introverted and reversed.

I gave the interpretations to them as I promised. I waited for Lala and Lulu at the tambayan to give the printed interpretations and they were so amazed because of the result. They said they want to know how I found out those things. Lulu kept on asking what are the guidelines and basis of assessing their personality while Lala was so happy and kept on saying “Ang galing! Wowww! Ang galing! Akong ako ‘to. Ang galing!” Both of them rated 5 (extremely accurate) their evaluation sheet. I broke their happiness by saying “oooopppssss. Tingnan niyo, parehas kayo ng interpretation.” The two looked at the interpretation of the other. Then, after they realized that I “cheated” (according to them), I explained the Barnum effect and the 3 levels of classification. I emphasized to them that the interpretations are in the level 2 (characteristics of someone relative to the other) and generalized characteristics. They felt a bit disappointed at first but moved on after some time.

I meet the student from CAL at FC (as what we have agreed before). After he read the interpretation, he smiled at me and said, “So true! Amazing! Wag mo babasahin iniisip ko ah!” He was the one who don’t particularly want to assess his personality so I was a bit shocked when he responded to me and said those words. To avoid further misunderstanding, after he answered the evaluation form and rated how accurately the assessment, I explained the Barnum effect as what I have explained it earlier to Lala and Lulu. He just smiled after hearing my explanations and said, “Ok.”

Because we didn’t have Eng30 on Thursday, I skipped the student from Eng’g and wait for the next day. Before our professor came, I gave the interpretation to him. He replied, “Naks! Ang galing, oo nga ‘no. Marami talaga akong potensyal. Buti na lang, kinareer ko ang drawing ko. Manghuhula ka ‘no?” And I heard another fanboy replies after conducting the experiment. I decided to end his admiration for my so-called-manghuhula-ability and explained the Barnum effect like I told the other three. After the explanations, he said: “Woooow! Oo nga ‘no! Ang galing!” I thought after explaining it to him, he will stop by saying “ang galing” but no, he kept on repeating and repeating it more.

The experiment which demonstrates the Barnum effect made me understand why personality quizzes on Facebook or on other sites are so popular to the people. They believe in the results and kept on answering personality tests. Even I had been victimized by those tests until I knew this. Because of knowing the tricks on the result, I will stop relaying to unauthorized personality quizzes all over the cyber world and won’t believe easily to something that tells that it will assess my personality.

References:

Burger, J. M. (2011).  Personality an introduction. Philippines: Cengage Learning

Asia Pte. Ltd.

Forer, B. R. (1949). The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of

gullibility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 44, 118-121♥ ☺ ♥ And that what life brings. ♥ ☺ ♥