Activity: The Psychology of Horoscopes and Personality Tests

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You are the easiest person to fool


Download Lesson Plan Here

Subjects: Science, Psychology, Language Arts, Social Studies, Critical Thinking, Logic

Grade Levels: Middle school, High school, College

Lesson Length: 30 minutes, over two class periods

Overview: This lesson tackles a crucial first step in skepticism and critical thinking: acknowledging our own vulnerability to deception. To demonstrate this, students are fooled with fake personality assessments to demonstrate how common techniques used by psychics and astrologers–such as the Barnum effect, confirmation bias, rainbow ruse, priming, and appeal to authority–exploit our psychological vulnerabilities to convince us of their supernatural powers. 

Learning Objectives:

  • Students will recognize that they can be fooled. 
  • Students will become aware of their susceptibility to the Barnum effect, confirmation bias, and priming. 
  • Students will appreciate the importance of skepticism and critical thinking when evaluating claims, especially those with a pseudoscientific or supernatural basis.

Note: Why fool students?: To prove to them they can be fooled!

  • No one likes to be fooled. This exercise encourages skepticism and critical thinking as powerful tools to avoid falling for misinformation.
  • Most people think they’re too smart to be fooled. But the truth is, we’re all vulnerable, and showing is more effective than telling.

Materials:

  • Handouts 
    • Personal Insights Survey
    • Personality Profile
      • Sign the bottom and put in a sealed envelope with their name on the outside. Also consider putting their names on the top of the profile, although in my experience it’s not necessary.
      • Feel free to alter content based on student demographics.
    • Debrief (use as teacher notes or as a handout)

Procedure:

  • Day 1 (10 minutes): Introduction and Survey 
    • Explain that you have a friend who’s a psychic and astrologer who has offered to provide free personality assessments.
    • Have students fill out the brief Personal Insights Survey
  • Day 2 (20 minutes): Results, Discussion, and Debrief
    • Results
      • Hand out the Personality Profiles, but ask students not to open them until everyone has theirs.
      • Tell students that you’d like to test the psychic’s accuracy so ask them to read their results quietly. 
      • Once students have read their Profiles, ask them to vote: on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most accurate, how accurate were their readings?
        • Voting can be done in different ways (I ask my students to close their eyes and raise their hands) as long as students don’t influence each other.
        • In my many years of doing this exercise, students rate the psychic as very accurate, usually between 4.3 and 4.5, which is in line with Forer’s original experiment.
      • Once you’ve calculated an average (a rough calculation is sufficient), report the results to the class.
    • Discussion
      • Put students into pairs or small groups to discuss their results. 
      • Guiding questions:
        • How well did the psychic “know” them?
        • What aspects of their readings stand out to them the most? And why?
      • Allow discussion to continue until the majority of groups realize they received the same reading.
    • Debrief 
      • Misleading students can be tricky, so it’s essential to explain to students why they were fooled.
      • Keep the mood light by apologizing and making it a fun game.
      • Use the Debrief Notes to expose the specific misleading techniques that were used (i.e., Barnum Effect, Rainbow Ruse, Confirmation Bias, Appeal to Authority, and Priming. 
  • Optional Extension: 
    • Have students identify Barnum statements in real-life examples, such as advertisements and horoscopes.

Assessment/Evaluation: Give students credit for participation. 

Special Thanks: This lesson was produced in collaboration with the Mental Immunity Project.

References:

  • Forer, B. R. 1949. The fallacy of personal validation: a classroom demonstration of gullibility. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 44(1), 118–123. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0059240. Available online here.
  • Trecek-King, M., & Cook, J. 2024. Combining Different Inoculation Types to Increase Student Engagement and Build Resilience Against Science Misinformation. Journal of College Science Teaching, 53(1): 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/0047231X.2023.2291968

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