Barum Effect

In class, we talked about the Barum effect. The Barum effect is a person’s tendency to accept a vague, general description of their personality as strikingly accurate. We did an activity where we wrote a sentence and had a paragraph given to us the next day that had analyzed our personality based off of our hand writing. Little did the class know, everyone got the same exact analysis. The majority of the class said that they agreed with the analysis that was given. In a class of twenty people, it is impossible for every single student to have the same exact personality.

The Barum effect showed the class that individuals are more likely to believe something “official” about their personality even if they know deep down that it is not true. My group and I thought that the analysis on our hand writing was spot on to our personality. It was interesting to see how easy someone’s mind can change based off of one thing. Once we were told that the analysis was fake, my group proceeded to start talking about all the qualities that were listed that didn’t quite describe them. I think seeing that change in opinion was the most interesting thing about the activity.