English Explanatory Dictionary

Barnum effect

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The tendency of individuals to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.

Word forms

Barnum effect Barnum effects

Etymology

Named after American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum.

Synonyms

Forer effect
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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