The Barnum effect and application in marketing

Have you ever completed a personality test on Facebook that reveals which character you are from Game of Thrones and found that it was surprisingly accurate?

If yes, then you have been influenced by what is known as The Barnum Effect.

Barnum effect or alternatively known as the Forer Effect is a cognitive bias where people believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them. However, in reality, those descriptions are vague and applicable to just about anyone.

The Barnum effect was popularized by a psychologist named Bertram Forer in the 1940s by conducting a personality test on his students. It got its name from an American showman P.T. Barnum who promoted his circus by providing “something for everyone”. In 2017, a musical movie (The Greatest Showman) was released inspired by P.T. Barnum. Huge Jackman played the role of P.T. Barnum in the movie.

In 1948, psychologist Bertram Forer gave a test to his psychology students telling them that they would receive a personality sketch based on the test result. Later, students received a personality sketch that was supposed to be tailored for each student. However, Forer gave each student a generalized personality sketch with vague statements.

Here are some of the statements

Result: The average rating that the students gave to the personality sketch of being accurate was 4.3 out of 5.

Conclusion: People accept general statements (Barnum statements) giving them a high degree of accuracy.

You can see The Barnum Effect at play almost everywhere around you. Mostly applicable to horoscopes, cold reading, personality tests, etc., the elements of the Barnum effects can be seen in digital marketing strategies.

Using promotional banners or any part of your website with messages that are general and vague but make customers feel like they are being interacted individually can enhance the conversion rate.

Advertising campaigns can use general statements and make customers feel like the campaign is tailored for them. Product recommendations are being used everywhere, for example, Amazon Kindle, Amazon product recommendation, Netflix recommendation, etc. these recommendations run on a bit of machine learning and the Barnum effect to deliver their messages.

When I opened my Kindle application, there were recommendations for me on what to read. These recommendations are based on my purchase history and the Barnum effect.

For example, after thinking a little bit, I can’t relate my interest with the recommendation “White Fragility”. But for Amazon Kindle, I might fall under a certain pool of customers to give that recommendation. I believe these strategies help improve the conversion rate.

The strongest influence of the Barnum effect can be seen in personality quizzes. You can easily tailor the outcome based on the answers someone gives. The key is to prime the person by making them believe that you are the authority to speak on the topic.

Consider the following test from BuzzFeed to find out which character you are.

I was scrolling down my Facebook and a test came up asking me “are you more like The Simpsons or Bob’s Burgers?”

I clicked it and then answered some silly questions. As a result, it put me in the category of “The Simpsons”. The secret is the Barnum effect and it explains why these quizzes and product recommendations are effective.

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