Fortune Cookies and The Barnum Effect

IT'S A SUNDAY MORNING ritual. I sit down with my coffee and the newspaper. Read the headlines first. Sports pages next. And then the rest of the newspaper.

- By PRAKASH IYER

The Barnum effect has found its way into the corporate world too. Think of feedback for instance. We hear gems like 'You have strong leadership potential, but you need to step up and do more'. And 'You are a good communicator, but you could listen more'. Each person feels it's uniquely about them. But it's so generic it could be told to all 12,450 employees in the organisation

And before putting it down, there's one more thing I do. I read the forecast for the the week ahead! I must confess I am not a big believer in astrology or horoscopes, but every time I read that forecast, I find something in there that seems so relevant to me. It seems exactly true of what's happening in my life. And I wonder, how do they get it so right? Has that happened to you too? Well, you must hear about an experiment conducted by Bertram Forer, a psychologist at the University of California.