The Forer Effect

     In 1967 a man with the last name Forer paid random strangers he got off of different avenues in New York City to come into his psych lab to conduct an social experiment he had hypothesized in theory that he desperately needed to be proved. He asked all of the participants to write their full name, birthday, and various favorite of different kind of genres (color, pet, movie) and hand there recordings back to him when they were done. 

     He then went back in his laboratory and in five minutes he came back out with a document of information that he handed to each of them saying that he has learned each of their personalities just through those pieces of information. As all of them read their own parcels they all admitted that his deductions were spot on. Little did they know until later, that they were all given the exact same document. What did it say? I give you the Forer Effect.

     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. Your sexual adjustment has presented  problems for you. 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.

      This is the reason that some people believe in horoscopes, palm readers, and their zodiac signs to be true. This is so generic that it applies to anyone and also the source in which many personality tests develop from such as the Meyers-Briggs, Lawrence Kolhberg's moral development test, and the multiple personality test. The strange thing is that first two of these tests come from before the development of this test but still apply to the rudimentary basics of it.

     So what does this all mean to you? Well in the philosophical sense it teaches you that inherently all people are the same and that everyone is not so different as they may seem. But in the practical way of things all this teaches you is where they get the results of Buzz Feed quizzes from.