Written Just For You

It's scary how much companies can learn about you from the data your browser sends to their sites. For the past 5 or 6 years, I've been working as a web developer and have been working on a little project in conjunction with my course work in psychology at the U. At long last I've got something to show. I've written a little program that will take the data that your browser sends and from that, will produce a personality profile. Please read below and tell me how accurate it is so I can tweak the algorithm to be more accurate.

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 worrisome 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 as 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.

Thanks. Please rank on a scale of 1-5, 5 being most accurate. Leave feedback in the comments.





Actually, I've written nothing of the sort. This paragraph was written in 1948 by a psychologist called Bertram Forer as an experiment on one of his psychology classes. If you thought this was pretty accurate, don't feel too badly. We all have a tendency to believe vague-yet-positive statements about our personality that have supposedly been written specifically for us. This is known as the Forer Effect (or Personal Validation Falacy) and has been used to great effect by astrologers, psychics and salesmen that I meet at Home Depot (another story for another time).

So, having said that, how accurate did you honestly think it was? Me? When I encountered this earlier this morning, I would have rated it a 4 out of 5.