We read you.
How well can a personality reading built from a few odd questions describe you?
Original study
- Forer, B. R. (1949). The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of gullibility. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 44(1), 118–123. Source
- Meehl, P. E. (1956). Wanted—a good cook-book. American Psychologist, 11(6), 263–272. Source
- Dickson, D. H., & Kelly, I. W. (1985). The ‘Barnum effect’ in personality assessment: A review of the literature. Psychological Reports, 57(2), 367–382. Source
- Snyder, C. R., Shenkel, R. J., & Lowery, C. R. (1977). Acceptance of personality interpretations: The “Barnum effect” and beyond. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 45(1), 104–114. Source
- Snyder, C. R., & Larson, G. R. (1972). A further look at student acceptance of general personality interpretations. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 38(3), 384–388. Source
- Furnham, A., & Schofield, S. (1987). Accepting personality test feedback: A review of the Barnum effect. Current Psychology, 6(2), 162–178. Source
Our adaptation
An online adaptation of Forer's (1949) classroom demonstration. First a few odd questions are asked (a color, a shape, the most productive time of day), then a line is drawn on screen and the participant taps five times; next a 12-sentence 'personality analysis' that is identical for everyone is shown. The analysis is rated from 0 to 5 and each sentence is marked 'fits me' or 'doesn't'; finally trust in such analyses and whether the participant became suspicious are asked. That the analysis is the same for everyone is revealed on the result screen.
Differences from the original study
- There is no control group; no comparison with a truly personal analysis is made.
- Showing the analysis as if it were computed is part of the experiment and is disclosed immediately on the result screen.
- Line and tap measurements are only shown on screen and are not sent.
Measured variables
The columns of the open data file. List fields are expanded into numbered columns (for example rt_60, est_3); JSON columns contain only numbers and fixed stimulus names.
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
accuracy | integer | Accuracy rating of the analysis (0 not at all – 5 exactly me). |
fit | JSON | For each of the 12 sentences, 'fits me' (1) / 'doesn't' (0), in text order. |
n_fit | integer | Number of sentences marked as fitting (0–12). |
belief | integer | Trust in such analyses (0–3). |
suspect | integer | Suspected while reading that the text might be the same for everyone (0 no, 1 yes, 2 not sure). |
color | integer | Color chosen (0–7; screen color only). |
shape | integer | Shape chosen (0 circle, 1 triangle, 2 square, 3 spiral). |
time_of_day | integer | Most productive time of day (0 morning, 1 noon, 2 evening, 3 night). |
Columns present in every file (14)
row_id | string | Row code. Regenerated at random in every release; it does not identify a person and cannot be matched across releases or experiments. |
experiment | string | Short name of the experiment (URL slug). |
experiment_version | integer | Version of the answer format. For experiments whose format changed, only the current format is published. |
date | YYYY-MM-DD | YYYY-Www | YYYY-MM | Day the answer was given (Istanbul time). If fewer than 5 answers share the same day, language and device, it is coarsened to the ISO week, and to the month if that is still too few. |
date_precision | day | week | month | Precision of the date column. |
lang | tr | en | (boş) | Interface language. Language recording started in the first week of October 2026; for earlier answers it is known only in experiments whose stimuli depend on the language, and empty otherwise. |
device | desktop | mobile | tablet | (boş) | Device class reported by the browser (class only; browser details are neither stored here nor published). |
source | site | embed | Where the answer came from: the balabs site or the experiment embedded on another site. The embedding site is not published. |
mode | free | daily | challenge | race | session | (boş) | Play mode in scored experiments: free play, daily round, challenge, race room, experiment session. Empty for unscored experiments and for older answers that did not store it. |
color_vision | normal | rg | by | contrast | (boş) | In color-based experiments, the color vision mode the participant chose: normal, red-green, blue-yellow or high contrast. Stimuli are generated along different axes per mode, so compare within a mode. Empty for other experiments. |
first_play | 1 | Every row is a participant’s first play of this experiment (always 1). Replays are stored only as leaderboard scores and are not part of the open data. |
seen_before | yes | no | unsure | (boş) | Participant’s own report of whether they had seen this experiment or its known answer before (in experiments that ask). |
duration_s | number | Time from the start of the experiment to submitting the answer, in seconds (measured in the browser, 0.1 s). |
play_score | number | Leaderboard score of the first play (scored experiments; defined on the method card). Empty for unscored experiments. |
Exclusion criteria
The server requires the rating, a mark for all 12 sentences, and the trust and suspicion answers.
- Only each participant's first answer to this experiment; replays are not included.
- Simulated rows, bots, banned and sample accounts are not included.
- Answers before 3 October 2026 are not included (the first day the open data notice was live).
Scoring
This experiment has no leaderboard score. The crowd result is the mean accuracy rating and the acceptance rate per sentence.
Version notes
- October 2026
The interface language (lang) started being stored with each answer; for earlier answers it is known only in experiments whose stimuli depend on the language, and empty otherwise.