I Know You (Yes, YOU!)

Because you are on this blog and specifically taking the time to read this article, I have accurately predict your personality

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Your Unique Result:

You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure 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 pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life.

How accurate would you consider this personality prediction? (Scale from 1 - 5 with 1 being Dead Wrong and 5 being Right On)

Crazy, right? How did I know?

As much as I would like to take credit for the analysis and offer you future insights for $4.99, I must give the credit to Bertram R. Forer. He was a psychologist and in 1948 gave a personality test to 100 students and told them that each will receive an unique analysis of their results. After distributing the results, he asked the 100 students to rate the accuracy of the results (1 being inaccurate and 5 being very accurate) and the avg rating was 4.26.

So what? Well, the thing was that each student received the SAME analysis which just happens to be the exact same one you read at the beginning of this article.

You my friend has just been a sucker of the "Forer Effect" but don't worry "there's a sucker born every minute" (PT Barnum).

Forer Effect - individuals will give high accuracy ratings to personality descriptions that are supposedly made specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people

Other similar experiments have found higher accuracy ratings are given if:

• the subject believes that the analysis applies only to him or her
• the subject believes in the authority of the evaluator
• the analysis lists mainly positive traits

To be candid, the first time this unique analysis was made for me, I gave it a 4.5 in accuracy. I guess that's why we still have fortune tellers, psychics and astrologers out there making a living.

You can find the full research report here.

Recommended Reading:

Brain Candy by Garth Sundem