you are are a unique individual. just like everybody else
Look into my eyes for 5 seconds then review the analysis below the picture.
You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself.
While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.
You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage.
Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worried and insecure on the inside.
At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
You also pride yourself on being an independent thinker and do not accept others’ statements without satisfactory proof.
But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others.
At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved.
Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.
Does that sound about right?
Actually the above quotation comes an experiment conducted by psychologist Bertram R. Forer in 1948.
He gave some students a personality test based on tabloid horoscope material, gave each of them the same report and explained it was their personal assessment.
On average, the subjects marked their personal analysis as about 85 percent correct.
This tendency to believe general vaguaries as specific is called the Forer effect, and part of a larger cognitive bias known as subjective validation - our tendency to be more persuaded by statements that seem to be about 'us'.
After all you are are a unique individual. Just like everybody else.
So when we advertising types are looking for insight and developing propositions we should be advised that a fruitful avenue of pursuit is not the road that seeks to find those things that make people different but finding those things that make us the same.
ht and thanks NotSoSmartBlog. Buy his book.
