Forer effect

What it is

Accepting vague, general descriptions as personal and accurate, which is why horoscopes and some personality tests feel uncannily right.

Related

• Confirmation bias bias
  We remember the vague statements that fit us and ignore the ones that don't.
• Apophenia bias
  Both attach meaning to the meaningless: patterns in noise, personal relevance in generic statements.
• Weasel words fallacy
  Vague statements feel personally meaningful, which is the Forer effect and the weasel word's appeal.

Appears in

• The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly#64: Forer effect

References

• Wikipedia: Forer effect en.wikipedia.org
• The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia: List of cognitive biases en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia: Cognitive bias codex en.wikipedia.org

More in “What it means: finding patterns and stories”