Astrology and the Absurd

Have you ever been amazed by the 'accuracy' of your horoscope? No? Me neither. However, in high school I read my astrological profile in a random book and recall being quite amazed at the number of personality traits that actually applied to me. Scratch it down to generalisations and lucky guesses, I said (and still do). But there is something more there, known as the Forer effect, that makes some sense of this, well, nonsense.

Named after the psychologist Bertram R. Forer, the Forer effect is the observation that people will generally rate their personality descriptions as being accurate when they are under the impression that the description only applies to them, while in reality the description is incredibly vague and applies to a broad range of people.

In 1948, Forer brought light to this human tendency when he issued a personality test to his students, and subsequently gave them a personality description, supposedly based on the test's results. The students were asked to rate their respective personality descriptions on a scale of 0 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). The average was 4.26. Forer then revealed that each student had been given the same analysis:

"You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the 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 also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic."

Forer had assembled this text from horoscopes.