Schizotypy and the Barnum Effect

‘Barnum Effect’ refers to a tendency for people to endorse, as an accurate description of themselves, personality descriptions that are essentially bogus, often derived from horoscopes or other dubious sources. The study reported examined individual differences in this bias as it relates to schizotypy. Participants completed the O-LIFE (a multiscale measure of psychotic traits) and judged the self-accuracy of personality descriptions derived from an open-source test, Brain Works, claimed as a measure of ‘creative potential’. Overall there was a highly significant Barnum Effect and, within the sample, significant positive correlations between the degree of bias and the two cognitive subscales of the O-LIFE: Unusual Experiences and Cognitive Disorganisation. On further examination, it transpired that it was the latter scale that accounted for most of the variance. The other two scales – Introvertive Anhedonia and Impulsive Nonconformity – showed no association with Barnum susceptibility.