21 psychological statements true for all of us
Introduction
Ever wondered about those people who seem to read our minds , look into our souls and say things which sound so familiar and true? And most importantly, when said to us, these statements appear special and customized to us. Like, spoken or written only for us. Now, doesn't that make us feel special? or maybe understood better? Who doesn't like the feeling of being unique?
Without further adieu, I present to you , the "Barnum statements" or "Barnum Effect" statements.
Try to see if these apply to you. Will see you on the other side! or rather , at the end of the article to discuss more.
Try to relax and just take in the sentence and see if it applies to you. Don't try to overthink, just go with the flow
21 Barnum statements for you and only you!
Count the number of times you say "YES" to statements and write in the comments below.
21. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage.
20. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them.
19. At times, you have serious doubts whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
18. You have a strong need for other people to like you and for them to admire you.
17. Deep down you know your self-worth. But you have a tendency to be too critical of yourself.
16. Disciplined and controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside.
15. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety, and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
14. You are generally very nice, but when someone breaks your trust, you feel a deep sense of injustice that you have difficulty letting go of.
13. You are highly selective of your friends, and very picky about who you have relationships with, although you have a wide range of acquaintances.
12. There is someone in your life whose words hurt you, and you regularly think about cutting contact with them.
11. You are a daydreamer. Oftentimes you find yourself tuning out of conversations because your mind is somewhere of your own creation.
10. You love/trust/make friends easily, but because of your fear of rejection you sometimes find yourself unintentionally sabotaging your new relationships.
9. You have a particularly large fear of rejection. And you worry that this has limited your experiences in life.
8. You don't like to be told what to do.
7. And because of that, you often find yourself secretly rebelling against people in authority.
6. You often have great ideas that you just never have the motivation to follow through on.
5. At times, you are extroverted and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary and closed-off.
4. You have creative abilities that you aren't always able to indulge in, and that bothers you fairly often.
3. You get anxious in social situations, and because of that you often feel people get the wrong impression about you.
2. You are an independent thinker. You like to check out claims for yourself before you believe what someone tells you.
1. You would rather mediate between two arguing parties, than take sides.
Hello and welcome back mind wayfarer!
So, how did it go? Did you feel that you were able to relate to most of the statements?
Now, think of this setting. If you were sitting face to face or having a one on one conversation, you could even pick and choose the next statement to present to the person. i.e, you could skip some of the statements based on his/her body language , minute facial expressions and so on. Effectively, you tailor make the order of sentences and interweave it with the little life experiences they share or their demeanor. Now, that would baffle them, , wouldn't it?
What just happened?
Why were you able to relate to almost all of these statements?
The Barnum effect, also called the Forer effect, is a common psychological phenomenon whereby individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them but that are, in fact, vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some paranormal beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, graphology, aura reading, and some types of personality tests.
The Forer effect is a specific example of the so-called "acceptance phenomenon", which describes the general tendency of humans "to accept almost any bogus personality feedback"
Yikes! Am I that impressionable?
Well yes, there is nothing much we can do, since these statements can be altered and presented to us in various forms at various situations. The more we are exposed to these in a vulnerable situation, the more we are susceptible to it.
What is a vulnerable situation?
- You respect the person telling you the statement. Example - a professor, a learned man, a person of power
- You see no motive in the other person - Example - a priest , a friend with no real motives to profit from making you feeling better.
- You are in an impressionable state of mind - overly excited, stressed or even overly calm. Burnt out giving attention and care and seeking some affirmation for what you are. wanting to feel special.
Good lord! What next!
Well, with this article you are a little bit more closer to understanding yourself and ways in which Language and Carefully Planted Ideas make us feel special and susceptible. Yes indeed, we are all unique and special. And there are things which we deeply care about ourselves which light up our eyes when told to us by someone. Its nice to feel flattered or pampered or appreciated.
The more awareness we have about how our mind works, the better we are equipped to deal with those curved balls that #life at us!
Keep exploring! Learn from experiences and move on.
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Easter Egg: Because I mentioned "21" statements, your mind was pre-programmed to think of 21 statements, There are in-fact only 20 statements. Statements 7 & 8 have been intentionally broken-up into 2 pieces. Keep an open mind!