The Barnum or Forer effect is the tendency for people to judge that general, universally valid statements about personality are actually specific descriptions of their own personalities. A "universally valid" statement is one that is true of everyone—or, more likely, nearly everyone. It is not known why people tend to make such misjudgments, but the effect has been experimentally reproduced.
The psychologist Paul Meehl named this fallacy "the P.T. Barnum effect" because Barnum built his circus and dime museum on the principle of having something for everyone. It is also called "the Forer effect" after its discoverer, the psychologist Bertram R. Forer, who modestly dubbed it "the fallacy of personal validation".
Originally Posted by Lolita
I don’t hate my conflictor (LII) since there’s really not many of them around. The real ones are actually very reasonable, pleasant people. The most annoying is EIE who’s my benefactor. Not only are they delusional, they’re also bad at everything and instead of owning up and improving, they play victim and expect others to rescue them. They’re super common and they like gaslighting anyone who doesn’t fall for their silly projections.
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