Bertram Forer | |
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| Born | Bertram Robin Forer (1914-10-24)24 October 1914 Springfield, Massachusetts |
| Died | 6 April 2000(2000-04-06) (aged 85) Ventura, California |
| Alma mater | University of Massachusetts Amherst University of California, Los Angeles (MA, PhD) |
| Known for | Barnum effect |
Bertram R. Forer (24 October 1914 – 6 April 2000) was an Americanpsychologist best known for describing theForer effect, sometimes referred to assubjective validation.[1]
Born inSpringfield, Massachusetts, Forer graduated fromUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst in 1936. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology fromUniversity of California, Los Angeles.
Forer served as a psychologist and administrator in amilitary hospital in France duringWorld War II. Upon return he worked in aVeterans Administration mental clinic in Los Angeles; and in private practice inMalibu, California.
In his classic 1948 experiment, Forer administered apersonality test to his students. Rather than scoring the tests and giving individual assessments, he gave all the students exactly the same analysis copied from a newspaperastrology column. The students were then asked to evaluate the description on a scale of zero through five, with five being the most accurate. The average evaluation was 4.26.[2][3]
The experiment has been repeated hundreds of times since 1948, and the average remains about 4.2.[4]
The "Forer effect", sometimes known as theBarnum effect, shows that people tend to accept generalised descriptions of their personalities without realising that the same evaluation could apply to nearly anyone else, because people want the results to be true. This experiment is frequently cited in criticisms of otherpersonality tests like theMyers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Bertram Forer was married to Lucille Kremith Forer, best known as the main author of the book "The Birth Order Factor".[5][6]They have two sons.
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