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Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to stuff to blow your mind. My

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Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we

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Speaker 1: are going down down into the vault to revisit an

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Speaker 1: episode from Days of Old. That's right, this uh, this week,

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Speaker 1: we have an episode that originally published July two thousand

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Speaker 1: and fifteen, and it has to do a little bit

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Speaker 1: with old P. T. Barnum, who's in the well sort

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Speaker 1: of in the news again because there's a movie out

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Speaker 1: about his life. Right. Oh, I didn't even know that.

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Speaker 1: What's the movie? The Greatest Showman? The Greatest Showman, The

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Speaker 1: Greatest Showman that's in the greatest show on Earth but

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Speaker 1: making it Showman? Who's in it? Hugh Jackman, Old Wolverine himself,

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Speaker 1: Nice Barnum with claws. I have no idea. It's a musical,

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Speaker 1: so I probably will never see it. But at any rate,

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Speaker 1: his name is back in the ether again, so we

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Speaker 1: thought it a good opportunity to bust this episode out again.

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Speaker 1: What do you think about all you're singing? Oh, I

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Speaker 1: think he's fine. It's not necessarily my thing. Did you

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Speaker 1: see him in Lama's Rob No, No, you didn't see it. No,

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Speaker 1: I've only heard like clips of him singing. I generally

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Speaker 1: prefer him to you know, to be killing people with

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Speaker 1: claws or or bawling, uh, you know, emotionally. Yeah, he's okay,

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Speaker 1: he's okay singing anyway. Uh So I had no idea

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Speaker 1: about that. But there's your tie in. That's why this

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Speaker 1: is airing now. So I hope you enjoyed this episode

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Speaker 1: on the horror Effect. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your

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Speaker 1: Mind from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey, welcome to

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb

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Speaker 1: and I'm Joe McCormick. In. Today we're gonna be talking

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Speaker 1: about the science of personality assessments. Uh and full disclosure.

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Speaker 1: We wanted to let you know that the reason we

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Speaker 1: thought to do this topic today was that How Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works actually hired an audience research firm to study our

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Speaker 1: podcast audiences through surveys and statistical filing. Yeah, so you

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Speaker 1: took that survey that we put up on Facebook. That's

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Speaker 1: what that was all about. Yeah, unless you think that

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Speaker 1: this was just out of curiosity, you should always keep

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Speaker 1: in mind that marketers and advertisers want to know everything

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Speaker 1: about you, not because you're so interesting, but because it

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Speaker 1: helps them sell you snack boxes and underwear. Yes, but anyway,

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Speaker 1: they offered a personalized psychometric inventory for each of the

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Speaker 1: individual podcast audiences, so each podcast got their own and

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Speaker 1: it was based on a test originally compiled by the

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Speaker 1: Society for Personality and Social Psychology subdivision of the A

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Speaker 1: p A. And I thought this was really cool, Like

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Speaker 1: they came up with a psychological profile was basically a

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Speaker 1: personality sketch that listed key personality traits that were characteristics

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Speaker 1: unique to each podcast audience. And so I picked like

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Speaker 1: five of the traits they listed as unique to the

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Speaker 1: archetypical stuff to blow your mind listener. So I thought

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Speaker 1: you guys might be interested in this. Yeah, yeah, let's

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Speaker 1: roll these out and then as we do, you can

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Speaker 1: just think, well, to think to yourself, does that jive

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Speaker 1: with my outlook on life and how I view myself? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so here we go. Number One, you tend to be

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Speaker 1: independent thinkers, hesitant to accept the statements of others without

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Speaker 1: adequate proof. Number two, you prefer a certain amount of

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Speaker 1: change and variety and become dissatisfied when himmed in by

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Speaker 1: restrictions and limitations. Three. At times, you experience varying degrees

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Speaker 1: of social anxiety. Number four, you were motivated by a

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Speaker 1: strong desire for fairness and reciprocity in social situations. Five.

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Speaker 1: At times, you have serious doubts as to whether you've

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Speaker 1: made the right decision or done the right thing. So,

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Speaker 1: before we get into the meat of today's episode, I

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Speaker 1: just wanted to mention that if you're a regular listener

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Speaker 1: and you want to let us know how accurately this

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Speaker 1: profile describes you, you can email us at blow the

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Speaker 1: Mind at how stuff works dot com and give us

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Speaker 1: feedback on on the sketch. And unfortunately, everything I just

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Speaker 1: said was made up. Yes, yes, this is a little

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Speaker 1: slice of fiction, a slice of necessary fiction to get

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Speaker 1: into our topic today. Yeah. So there was no audience survey,

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Speaker 1: no survey data. We just threw together that sketch from

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Speaker 1: a few pre existing generic descriptions. Hopefully nobody's upset about it,

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Speaker 1: but if you are, you can contact how Stuff Works

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Speaker 1: chief legal consultant, Richard W. Glazer. That's right. Uh, but

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Speaker 1: be honest, now, were you thinking for a second, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that sounds like me, I have to admit, when I've

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Speaker 1: read through them, even knowing that that we had just

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Speaker 1: made this up, I was thinking, Yeah, that's how I

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Speaker 1: view it. As a co host of the show. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I am completely susceptible to this effect we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk about today. I think if I had been in

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Speaker 1: the audience's position here, I would have been like, Yep,

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Speaker 1: that describes me. I think, at least in the kind

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Speaker 1: of egotistical, self absorbed, self congratulatory way we sometimes all

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Speaker 1: tend to be. I'm sure that I tend to be

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Speaker 1: on the inside. Uh. If you weren't convinced, congratulations for

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Speaker 1: being a skeptical no at all. But if you work

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Speaker 1: and vinced, don't feel ashamed because you just displayed susceptibility

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Speaker 1: to an effect that shows up in most humans, no

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Speaker 1: matter how smart we are. And this is known as

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Speaker 1: the former effect fo r e er or the Barnum effect.

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Speaker 1: Both names refer to the exact same thing, and we'll

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Speaker 1: probably use the terms interchangeably today, but mainly we're gonna

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Speaker 1: use Barnum effect in the podcast because that's easier to

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Speaker 1: say out loud. So the Barnum version of the name

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Speaker 1: comes from the circus kingpin P. T. Barnum, and I'm

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Speaker 1: thinking it could be ascribed to two different quotes attributed

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Speaker 1: to Barnum either that there's a sucker born every minute,

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Speaker 1: which apparently he did not actually say, or that Barnum

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Speaker 1: had something for everybody. And I think that latter one

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Speaker 1: might be what's key here. And if he didn't have

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Speaker 1: something for everybody, he wanted to sell a product, right,

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Speaker 1: the circus product is intended for a wide audience, and

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Speaker 1: he wants to draw in as many people's poss Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's got a he's got to push those jugglers, you know.

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Speaker 1: But the former title comes from the American psychologist Bertram R. Forwer,

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Speaker 1: and he noticed this effect in a classic paper he

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Speaker 1: published in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology in

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine, and this paper was called the Fallacy

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Speaker 1: of Personal Validation, A classroom demonstration of gullibility. Now to

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Speaker 1: give you a little background on four Bertram R. Four

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Speaker 1: He was born in nineteen fourteen died in two thousand.

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Speaker 1: American psychologist, again famous for this ninety personality test and

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Speaker 1: his students. But he served as a psychologist and administrator

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Speaker 1: in a military hospital in France during the Second World War,

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Speaker 1: and then he worked in l a at a veteran's

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Speaker 1: mental clinic. And also he had a private practice in Malibu. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so what did forwer test with his students. Fourer had

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Speaker 1: previously discussed with his students a sort of proto personality

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Speaker 1: quiz called the diagnot a stick interest blank, or d

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Speaker 1: I B, and this was a qualitatively evaluated test that

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Speaker 1: he explained in the following language. He said quote. The

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Speaker 1: d IB consists of a list of hobbies, reading materials,

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Speaker 1: personal characteristics, job duties, and secret hopes and ambitions of

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Speaker 1: one's ideal person. The test is interpreted qualitatively and personality

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Speaker 1: dynamics are inferred along line similar to projective tests. So

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Speaker 1: this is a it's supposed to be qualitatively evaluated by

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Speaker 1: a perceptive and trained professional, somebody who knows what they're doing.

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Speaker 1: And some of his students, when they heard about the test,

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Speaker 1: asked to take it. They wanted to take the d

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Speaker 1: IB and received these tailored personality evaluations because you know,

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Speaker 1: who doesn't want to take a personality quiz and learn

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Speaker 1: a little bit about themselves? Right? I mean, that's it

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Speaker 1: just speaks to our egos as well as you know,

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Speaker 1: most people's desires for self improvement. You know, we want

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Speaker 1: to we want we want to fill out that Dungeons

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Speaker 1: and Dagens character sheet with our own attributes and figure

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Speaker 1: out what we need. A tweak with a magical ring

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Speaker 1: or two? Right, I am chaotic neutral for real. So

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Speaker 1: four acquiesced to their desire, and a group of thirty

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Speaker 1: nine students all took the test and handed in their papers.

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Speaker 1: And then one week later Fourer met with the students

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Speaker 1: again for class and he handed back the individually tailored

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Speaker 1: personality vignettes, and each one was a list of thirteen

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Speaker 1: perceived personality attributes under the student's name, and the students

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Speaker 1: were instructed to keep the results private. That part was

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Speaker 1: important because, in fact, thirteen personality features listed on each

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Speaker 1: student's paper had nothing to do with what the students

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Speaker 1: wrote on their test. Uh In fact, they were all

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Speaker 1: exactly the same for each one of the thirty nine students.

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Speaker 1: So there were thirteen statements listed on each of these

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Speaker 1: thirty nine identical personality sketches, and we're gonna read through

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Speaker 1: them real quick. Number one, you have a great need

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Speaker 1: for other people to like and admire you. You have

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Speaker 1: a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a

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Speaker 1: great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned

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Speaker 1: your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you were

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Speaker 1: generally able to compensate for them. Your sexual adjustment has

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Speaker 1: presented problems for you. Disciplined and self controlled outside, you

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Speaker 1: tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you

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Speaker 1: have serious doubts as to whether you've made the right

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Speaker 1: decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain

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Speaker 1: amount of change and variety, and become dissatisfied when himmed

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Speaker 1: in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an

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Speaker 1: independent thinker and do not accept other statements without satisfactory proof.

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Speaker 1: You have found it unwise to be too frank in

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Speaker 1: revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable,

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Speaker 1: while at other times you were introverted, wary, reserved. Some

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Speaker 1: of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is

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Speaker 1: one of your major goals in life. So the brilliance

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Speaker 1: of these is that like just going through them there

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Speaker 1: knowing a and these are false, that these are just

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Speaker 1: you know, could be thrown out to anybody. I found

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Speaker 1: myself nodding my head and saying, yeah, I can, definitely

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Speaker 1: I can. If I don't buy that statement, outright, I

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Speaker 1: can at least pick some data from my own personal

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Speaker 1: history that could support that theory. Yeah, and that is

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Speaker 1: exactly what the test ends up relying on. So for

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Speaker 1: reveals in a footnote of his paper that quote these

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Speaker 1: statements came largely from a new stand astrology book, So

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Speaker 1: he just found a horoscope and and picked out random

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Speaker 1: statements that could apply to a Capricorn, a sagittarius, whoever

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Speaker 1: it is. And students were then asked to rate, on

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Speaker 1: a scale of zero to five, with zero being poor

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Speaker 1: and five being perfect, the accuracy of the d I

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Speaker 1: B as a test, and then the accuracy of their

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Speaker 1: own individual sketch as a portrayal of their personality. And

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Speaker 1: then he also asked the students to go down the

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Speaker 1: list and mark each of the thirteen statements as true, false,

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Speaker 1: or a question mark. Here were the results, as rated

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Speaker 1: by the students. The d I B got only one three,

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Speaker 1: it got twenty five fours, and it got thirteen fives.

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Speaker 1: So thirteen students thought it was perfect, thought it was

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Speaker 1: really good, and one thought it was okay. So all

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Speaker 1: of the students but one gave the test a four

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Speaker 1: or five for accuracy, and then When it came to

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Speaker 1: the individual sketches, all but five students rated their sketch

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Speaker 1: of four or a five, So the students overwhelmingly thought

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Speaker 1: the test was pretty good, too perfect, And an interesting

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Speaker 1: thing for Or points out when comparing the student ratings

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Speaker 1: of the test and the sketch against their item by

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Speaker 1: item breakdown, is this quote. For some individuals, the presence

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Speaker 1: of eight true statements among the thirteen was considered sufficient

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Speaker 1: evidence for acceptance of the sketch as perfect. M Let

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Speaker 1: that sink in for a second, eight out of thirteen

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Speaker 1: is sixty two per cent. So for some students, even

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Speaker 1: with these extremely vague statements, just getting sixty two percent

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Speaker 1: right about them was enough for the test to count

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Speaker 1: as a perfect hit. Yeah, how does that does that work?

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Speaker 1: What's your definition of perfect in this? I don't know. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think it comes down to something four explains in

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Speaker 1: his paper later about the discrepancy between our sort of

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Speaker 1: like qualitative or quantitative analysis of the results and then

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Speaker 1: the amount of confidence we're willing to attribute to a

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Speaker 1: diagnostic tool as a whole. But what happened here? I mean,

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Speaker 1: subsequent studies have repeatedly demonstrated the Barnum effect under various circumstances,

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Speaker 1: so it's pretty safe to assume that for students weren't

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Speaker 1: just particularly gullible. In Art Carroll's entry in the Skeptics Dictionary,

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Speaker 1: he claims, quote, the test has been repeated hundreds of

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Speaker 1: times with psychology students, and the average is still around

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Speaker 1: four point two out of five or eight accurate. So

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Speaker 1: why are we so eager to gobble up worthless effectively

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Speaker 1: random assessments of ourselves? Well as as we'll discuss the

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Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the answer lies in the presentation.

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Speaker 1: You know, where this test was was taken and who

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Speaker 1: was given it to them, and then the the language

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Speaker 1: in which it was administered. Right, it's a psychology professor,

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Speaker 1: it's a you know, an authority figure administering this test

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Speaker 1: to the students in a classroom in a center of learning. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And it's wrapped in the expected psychological lingo. Yes, but

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Speaker 1: there's an even deeper issue going on with the nature

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Speaker 1: of these evaluations that makes them work. And it's based

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Speaker 1: on the interplay between two principles that four points out

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Speaker 1: in his paper. And uh he four is referring to

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Speaker 1: certain types of people like crystal gazers as one term

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Speaker 1: he uses. I think that means like somebody looking into

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Speaker 1: a crystal ball, he's arning about the psychics of his day,

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Speaker 1: and and things like that. He says, they might even

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Speaker 1: unwittingly make use of these principles, but they are making

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Speaker 1: use of them. And the principles are universal validity and

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Speaker 1: personal validation. That his term is personal validation. But today

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Speaker 1: we might know this as subjective validation. And the idea

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Speaker 1: of universal validity is that pretty much every single psychological

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Speaker 1: trait can be observed in some degree in everybody. I mean,

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Speaker 1: think about it like if I say, at times you

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Speaker 1: experience varying degrees of social anxiety. Yeah, that's that's everybody. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: with it with a few just complete space aliens, you know,

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Speaker 1: eliminated from the mix. Everybody deals with some level of anxiety. Right.

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Speaker 1: So another way of thinking about this is casting a

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Speaker 1: wide net. And you can see a very similar parallel

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Speaker 1: practice if you watch a psychic front of a group

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Speaker 1: of people doing a cold reading on a crowd. So

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Speaker 1: the psychic might stand up in front of a crowd

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Speaker 1: and say, okay, I'm getting something from a spirit, a

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Speaker 1: spirit of someone known to someone in the room, it's

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Speaker 1: an older person, an older person named John or Jack.

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Speaker 1: Does that mean anything to anyone? Something something starting with

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Speaker 1: John or Jack, something starting with the letter J. And

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Speaker 1: then one hand goes an uncle named Jefferson exactly, yeah,

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Speaker 1: oh man, my uncle Jehosaphat. And then uh. And then

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Speaker 1: the psychic says, yes, that's right, Jehosaphat or Jefferson is

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Speaker 1: here with us, and and now we can talk to

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Speaker 1: Jeffer Josaphat. And then the client later says, wow, the

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Speaker 1: psychic somehow knew something about Jehosaphen, when in fact the

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Speaker 1: client has supplied the relevant specifics themselves. The psychic was

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Speaker 1: just trawling with a very large net. It would be

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Speaker 1: extremely weird if nobody in the room knew of a

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Speaker 1: deceased family member whose name started with J. Yeah, to

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Speaker 1: the odds are with you that you're going to catch

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Speaker 1: somebody with that very vague, very general bit of bait. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: But then the other principle is this principle of personal

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Speaker 1: or subjective validation. So how do you test the validity

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Speaker 1: of a diagnostic instrument, whether it's a horoscope or a

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Speaker 1: psychic or a supposedly professional and valid psychological personality. Test.

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Speaker 1: You probably don't want to test it by using it

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Speaker 1: on somebody and then saying how accurately did this describe you?

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Speaker 1: Because this is subject to what for would call the

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Speaker 1: fallacy of personal validation. Because you are you, and because

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Speaker 1: you know the story of your own life so well,

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Speaker 1: you can always find autobiographical hooks to hang almost any

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Speaker 1: statement on, especially vague and general statements. So we mentioned

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Speaker 1: the example a minute ago of social anxiety. Can you

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Speaker 1: ever think of an instance where social anxiety had a

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Speaker 1: meaningful role in your life? Yeah? Of course, yeah, every day.

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Speaker 1: Even somebody who's not particularly anxious, who doesn't have many

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Speaker 1: problems with social anxiety, can think of an instance that

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Speaker 1: was meaningful to them. Yeah. At the very least, they

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Speaker 1: were once children, and there had to have been some

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Speaker 1: point in their life where they felt a little awkward. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And so, simply put, subjective validation is when you find

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Speaker 1: personal and unique accuracy in statements that could apply to

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Speaker 1: many or all people. Yeah. And part of this just

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Speaker 1: gets into our our enormous capacity, uh to place ourselves

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Speaker 1: in any story too, just the fact that we are

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Speaker 1: empathic organisms. Yeah yeah, Um, we're always seeking meaning that

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Speaker 1: relates to us. This sort of ties into something we

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Speaker 1: talked about a while back in the Science of Coincidence episode,

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Speaker 1: where you know, we're pattern seeking creatures and we're constantly

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Speaker 1: trying to find the pattern that means something to me. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, you're talking about our ability to even essentially

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Speaker 1: put ourselves in the shoes of extreme cases. Um. You

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Speaker 1: know this this immediately makes me think of the popularity

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Speaker 1: of uh, you know, any kind of fiction that deals

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Speaker 1: with individuals with mental illness or in extreme cases, um,

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Speaker 1: serial murderers. You know, because if you have a well

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Speaker 1: executed serial killer story, um, you can still you still

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Speaker 1: end up investing yourself in that person on some level.

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Speaker 1: You end up empathizing with at least some aspect of

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Speaker 1: their you know, ultimately broken psyche. Right. Yeah, so if

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Speaker 1: you if you can connect with the serial killers relationship

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Speaker 1: with his mother or something like that, you're like, oh, no,

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Speaker 1: is this really the story of me? Yeah? Or like, uh,

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Speaker 1: I'm obviously thinking of Hannibal. Yeah, Hannibal actually came up

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Speaker 1: a couple of times in my mind looking through the

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Speaker 1: research here. Um, I think it was Joyce Carol Oates

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Speaker 1: has a book called Zombie that's essentially a retelling of

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Speaker 1: of the Jeffrey dalmer Um case, but with a fictionalized account,

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Speaker 1: and so even in this year, you're reading in it

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Speaker 1: and you can't actually empathize with the murderous aspects of

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Speaker 1: the main character. But ultimately it's about a guy who

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Speaker 1: feels lost in life and doesn't exactly know where he fits.

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Speaker 1: And you know who can't empathize on some level at

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Speaker 1: some point in their their timeline with an example like that, Right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: in a way, we're all that cannibal. Yeah. It makes

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Speaker 1: me wonder if you if you administered a test like

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Speaker 1: Forest Test and you had all of the personality statements

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Speaker 1: leaning more towards the darker and the insane, like, what

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Speaker 1: the acceptance level would be. Well, there actually is some

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Speaker 1: commentary on that in the literature, and we can get

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Speaker 1: to that in a bit. What are some other studies

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Speaker 1: that What have other studies revealed about this, uh, this property? Well,

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Speaker 1: there have been number one, It's just been reproduced many

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Speaker 1: many times. And the strength of the effect varies when

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Speaker 1: you change some of the test conditions, and we can

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Speaker 1: talk about that later, but there's pretty consistent result that

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Speaker 1: the subjects of personality assessments tend to rate assessments as

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Speaker 1: highly accurate in a way that's unique to them, even

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Speaker 1: though the statements within the assessment are vague in general,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes even when many of the individual statements in

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Speaker 1: the list are subjectively perceived as wrong by the client.

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Speaker 1: Remember when we talked about the people who got eight

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Speaker 1: out of thirteen right, said that the test described them perfectly.

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Speaker 1: So what's the impact of this in practice. Well, one

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Speaker 1: of the things that Forror was personally worried about was

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Speaker 1: that this could be used to validate or prop up

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Speaker 1: the accuracy of very bad tools. So let's say you're

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Speaker 1: an unscrupulous psychic or an unscrupulous psychotherapist. You can potentially

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Speaker 1: use a combination of subjective validation and universal validity to

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Speaker 1: get a very unhealthy amount of leverage over another person's

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Speaker 1: common sense. And the exchange might go something like this.

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Speaker 1: The psychic or unscrupulous psychologist makes a diagnosis of a

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Speaker 1: person's personality, taking advantage of these, you know, very vague

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Speaker 1: general traits, and then leaning on the client's tendency towards

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Speaker 1: subjective validation of the test. The client reads these things

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Speaker 1: like in the test we talked about and says, yep,

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Speaker 1: that's me, and then assumes that the psychic or the

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Speaker 1: unscrupulous psychologist has access to powerful and accurate skills or

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Speaker 1: diagnostic tools. Then the psychic or unscrupulous psychologist makes bolder,

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Speaker 1: more specific, less credible diagnoses or or predictions that might

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Speaker 1: not have been accepted on the first go around. But

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Speaker 1: at this point the client thinks, well, he knew what

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Speaker 1: he was talking about the last time, so he must

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Speaker 1: know this time. I'm going to listen to him. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's kind of a confidence trick, right, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's a it's it's a matter of producing this sort

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Speaker 1: of magical trick, this illusion that proves to the patient

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Speaker 1: or the the mark or however you want to want

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Speaker 1: to look at them, the customer, proves to them that

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Speaker 1: you have insight into who they are and what they're

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Speaker 1: all about. And then when they start making comments that

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Speaker 1: that don't jive as well, we just attribute it to

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Speaker 1: their they know more about us than we know about us. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I remember when I was right last time. It's also

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Speaker 1: very similar to the con maneuver. If you're trying to

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Speaker 1: con somebody out of a large amount of money, say like, hey,

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Speaker 1: invest in my pyramid scheme, it'll you know, I can

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Speaker 1: give give you a million dollars. First you ask for

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Speaker 1: a very small investment, and then you pay out what

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Speaker 1: you promised on that small investment, and then they say, wow, okay,

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Speaker 1: well it seems to work. And so then when you

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Speaker 1: ask for a bigger investment, you can fly off to

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Speaker 1: Hawaii with the money. You probably wouldn't fly to Hawaii.

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Speaker 1: Where would you fly to? Cayman Islands? Yeah? Or the

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Speaker 1: Far East I'm thinking? Or the halls of Deacon Yeah,

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Speaker 1: always a good place that it's tough to get the

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Speaker 1: currency exchanged properly there, but but still still a good place.

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Speaker 1: A lot of kind and hanging out in the tests, right,

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Speaker 1: And this can be applied to more different types of

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Speaker 1: diagnostic tools and instruments than you might think. I mean,

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Speaker 1: so the obvious ones we've talked about are like the

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Speaker 1: personal powers of a person who claims to be a psychic,

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Speaker 1: or a certain type of psychological test, any one of

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Speaker 1: these personality tests you can take. But other things might

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Speaker 1: be methods of discerning personalities like graphology. Have you ever

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Speaker 1: heard about graphology? Not until preparing this episode, now yes,

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Speaker 1: So so four claimed that he was prompted to perform

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Speaker 1: this experiment after he was accosted in a nightclub by

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Speaker 1: a graphologist. And a graphologist as a person who believes

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Speaker 1: they can tell you all about your personality by looking

402
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Speaker 1: at your handwriting. You know, this makes me think that

403
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Speaker 1: this nightclub was either really cool are are really lame?

404
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:52,800
Speaker 1: Like there's no in between there. If it involves being

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Speaker 1: approached by a grapholow, it sounds pretty cool to me.

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Speaker 1: I never get approached by graphologists when I'm out having

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Speaker 1: a you know, at a bar or somewhere. I wish

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00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:03,920
Speaker 1: I would be, because that would be really interesting. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: so graphology is widely considered a baseless pseudoscience, though I'm

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Speaker 1: sure some people still believe in it, and that's kind

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Speaker 1: of scary. But four wanted to demonstrate that he could,

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Speaker 1: with deliberately faulty techniques produce assessments that clients would find

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Speaker 1: just as accurate as those provided by a professional graphologist.

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Speaker 1: So repeat the same pattern I talked about a minute

415
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Speaker 1: ago with the with the psychic or the unscrupulous psychologist,

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Speaker 1: where they proved themselves and the and the accuracy of

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Speaker 1: their diagnostic tools with some very general vague statements just

418
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Speaker 1: relying on the fact that you're going to go, Wow, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it sounds like me and Bam, Now grophology works and

420
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Speaker 1: I can get you to give me all your money.

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Speaker 1: Now you don't have to go to a graphologist or

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00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 1: you know, or even listen to the intro to this

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Speaker 1: podcast to to have some introduction to the power of

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Speaker 1: the four effect um. And as we were chatting about this,

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00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: we kind of looked at at four different levels, like

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Speaker 1: at the very bottom level, you have essentially horoscopes and

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00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,119
Speaker 1: fortune cookies. And it's worth noting on fortune cookies that

428
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 1: every time, even though we know those are just coming

429
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: from a crate in the back of the Chinese restaurant,

430
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:25,919
Speaker 1: even though we really don't attribute any literal significance to

431
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 1: what's coming out of the cookie, they still resonate with

432
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 1: us because we still, at least for a second, we

433
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 1: just we suspend this belief just enough to engage in

434
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:40,920
Speaker 1: a worldview where the future is more than mystery and chance. Right, absolutely, Yeah,

435
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,480
Speaker 1: I have to ask, what's your favorite fortune cookie you've

436
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,560
Speaker 1: ever gotten? Um, Years and years and years ago, I

437
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 1: got one that was said one day you'll write a book.

438
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, that's great, that's what I want

439
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:52,920
Speaker 1: to do anyway. So, um, so I kept that on.

440
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 1: It's like, now they predicted the age of self publishing

441
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:57,639
Speaker 1: and then they were going to be right about no

442
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,720
Speaker 1: matter who opened that cookie, that's true, but uh, you

443
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 1: know it, um it was you know, even though I

444
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:04,679
Speaker 1: knew it was a vague statement, it's kind of like,

445
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,160
Speaker 1: on some level, I took it as encouragement, right, yeah, yeah,

446
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: Oh I'm if I had gotten a fortune cookie that

447
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 1: said you will write a book, I would still have

448
00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:13,479
Speaker 1: that in my wallet and be like, yep, I'm going

449
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:16,360
Speaker 1: to be a writer someday, that's how important I am.

450
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: Uh No, my favorite fortune cookie I ever got was

451
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:22,720
Speaker 1: the one that said constant grinding will wear the iron

452
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 1: rod down to a needle. Huh what does it mean?

453
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,679
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure. Like it's telling you not to

454
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,400
Speaker 1: file yourself with the file you wear a mouth card

455
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:35,719
Speaker 1: at night. Because if I if I had gotten that one,

456
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: I would think, oh, well that was clearly forecasting that

457
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 1: I grind my teeth and would need to wear a

458
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:42,879
Speaker 1: night card. Yeah well it could have been that, but

459
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:44,960
Speaker 1: look to it. Take that fortune if you still have

460
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 1: it to your dentist and say look into it, and

461
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: I don't know, my dentist is moderately humorless. But okay, yeah,

462
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:54,399
Speaker 1: so you have you have fortune cookies, which, like you

463
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 1: point out, they're especially funny because we give them the

464
00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,120
Speaker 1: significance even though, like let's say you're a person who

465
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 1: believes in astrology, the fortune cookie doesn't even aspire to

466
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 1: the astrology level because you know, they're all just pre

467
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: printed ahead of time and they're they're in a box. Yeah,

468
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 1: so at least the horoscope is the is the higher

469
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:19,960
Speaker 1: end of this level because it's at least rooted in

470
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:23,880
Speaker 1: this system. It's a system that doesn't have any validity

471
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: to it. But if you suspend disbelief or engage in

472
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:29,479
Speaker 1: a little magical thinking, you can buy into the system

473
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 1: and then buy into the results of the system. But

474
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:35,159
Speaker 1: that was the first level. What's the next level? Then

475
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 1: the next level we think, uh? Then the next level

476
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: we think is, uh, the which X men character are you?

477
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:45,639
Speaker 1: And and not necessarily just the wich X men character,

478
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:49,879
Speaker 1: but any of these various pseudo personality quizzes based in

479
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 1: fiction U that end up. You know, it seems like

480
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 1: for a while they were always rolling out on Facebook.

481
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 1: It is like every day it was a new one

482
00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 1: and you take this little, generally poorly x acuted quiz

483
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 1: and generally with very leading questions to determine which X

484
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:08,719
Speaker 1: Men character, which Twilight character are you? Which which house

485
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: and Harry Potter would you be in? That's right? I

486
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,959
Speaker 1: am gambit, yeah, yeah, And they would have questions like

487
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,239
Speaker 1: what would be your preferred weapon in a fight at

488
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 1: amantium clause or exploding playing cards, And that's just cheating

489
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:25,640
Speaker 1: because then the person is basically choosing which X Men

490
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,399
Speaker 1: character they want to be and just picking Yeah. I

491
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:30,199
Speaker 1: think one of the problems was there ended up being

492
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:32,640
Speaker 1: websites where you could build your own, so people would

493
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 1: just build them without any any thought into what makes

494
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:38,440
Speaker 1: you know, makes it seem like they work. The better ones,

495
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 1: and I think the ones that were not user generated

496
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 1: tended to feel a little more like a personality test

497
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 1: and it should be a surprise when it tells you

498
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: that you are joke or not. And from from there

499
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 1: we get into the next level, which, of course site

500
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: involves psychic readings cold readings, where there's an actual intellect

501
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:00,400
Speaker 1: on the other side of the test drawing you in,

502
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 1: conning you with that, you know, with that with that

503
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 1: little bit of generally appliable uh data and then making

504
00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: more specific hum revelations visible about your your personal history

505
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:16,840
Speaker 1: and your future and uh your departed loved ones in

506
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,160
Speaker 1: the afterlife. Yeah. There, it's interactive and it's smart. The

507
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: person knows what they're doing and they're working you. You know,

508
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:27,000
Speaker 1: it's not just like a kind of blank dumb statement

509
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 1: that you have to read into. They're helping you read

510
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,720
Speaker 1: into it actively. And then, of course, in the level

511
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:38,680
Speaker 1: beyond that, you have the quote professional personality test. This is,

512
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: of course, like Myers Briggs, the kind of test that

513
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,800
Speaker 1: a professional might come into your workplace and actually administer

514
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: the test to everyone. Yeah, and we're certainly not saying

515
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 1: that all professionally administered psychological tests are bunk. That that's

516
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,360
Speaker 1: not the case. What we are saying is that it's

517
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 1: very possible for a psychologist to design a personality assessment

518
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 1: that is bunk, and you might very well not know

519
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:04,840
Speaker 1: it right. And you know, I would go even even

520
00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 1: further and say that I believe that people can use

521
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 1: the cold reading techniques and psychic reading techniques for an

522
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:16,880
Speaker 1: overall positive experience with a person. But it kind of

523
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:18,680
Speaker 1: comes down to that the question you know, it's like,

524
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 1: if you let somebody go through the drawers in your house,

525
00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 1: are you going to trust them not to steal your silver?

526
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: Were right? So I'm positive they are individuals. I know

527
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 1: their individuals who have had the experience with psychics and

528
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:33,040
Speaker 1: UH and cold readers, and individuals using this technique where

529
00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: they at least feel that there is some sort of temporary,

530
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,320
Speaker 1: at least positive result from the experience. Oh yeah, Well,

531
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 1: as I said earlier in this episode, despite the fact

532
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:44,400
Speaker 1: that I'm aware of it and I'm gonna try to

533
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:47,280
Speaker 1: be cautious about it, I think I'm very susceptible to this.

534
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 1: I think I could easily naturally be the kind of

535
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: person that falls for it. If you tell me, at

536
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 1: times you experience social anxiety, but also you're an independent thinker,

537
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:02,240
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, yeah, you know that is me. So

538
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 1: here's a big here's a big question that emerges. Are

539
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:09,160
Speaker 1: there ways to make generic assessments feel more accurate to

540
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 1: people to make sure that they're not instantly being called

541
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: out for for the kind of generalities that that are

542
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:19,959
Speaker 1: that are hallmark of this kind of manipulation. Yeah, I

543
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:24,120
Speaker 1: think the first number one key principle is keep the

544
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:28,520
Speaker 1: descriptions as vague and generally applicable as possible without it

545
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,959
Speaker 1: being too obvious that they're meaningless. And this is a

546
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:34,960
Speaker 1: fine line that that you have to walk with language

547
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 1: if you're going to try to be a deceptive no

548
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,760
Speaker 1: good diagnostician. Um, so you wouldn't say, for example, you

549
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 1: are an extrovert or an introvert. I mean, obviously you're

550
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:48,200
Speaker 1: one of the two, right, But you can say that

551
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 1: without it being so clear. I think it needs a

552
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 1: little careful use of language. So you would try something

553
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: like you're often able to find fulfillment in social events

554
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 1: and relationships, but at times you feel like you need

555
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:04,320
Speaker 1: to be by yourself. Now, another possibility here comes to

556
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:06,239
Speaker 1: mind with the with the psychic, we're talking like if

557
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 1: a psychic were to say there's somebody in the room

558
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 1: here who knew an old person who died, like that

559
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 1: sounds just really fake. But if you were to phrase

560
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 1: it more like somebody here lost an individual, they were

561
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:20,600
Speaker 1: really just a strong presence in their life. They were

562
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: a real you know, a personal hero, a kind of

563
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,240
Speaker 1: a mentor a rock for you. Yeah, like you you

564
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 1: change the way you're describing, you change the language of

565
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,240
Speaker 1: it and uh, and then you might think, yeah, well,

566
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:33,320
Speaker 1: you know, my uncle Ben was kind of like that

567
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: without it just being like, who's an old person I

568
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,440
Speaker 1: know that died. Oh, I can choose from six, you know,

569
00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:42,040
Speaker 1: but it's still general enough that you could you could

570
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:43,840
Speaker 1: just throw that out there and see what you catch. Yeah,

571
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:47,560
Speaker 1: you're you're creating the illusion that you're narrowing the scope

572
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 1: without really narrowing it by much. So choose your words carefully.

573
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 1: In fact, I wanted to highlight it's in the spirit

574
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,840
Speaker 1: of one of my favorite quotes from Calvin and Hobbes,

575
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,560
Speaker 1: which is when Calvin's he's talking about how he used

576
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:02,160
Speaker 1: to hate writing assignments for school, but then he decides

577
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 1: he loves them because he says, quote, the purpose of

578
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 1: writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and

579
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 1: inhibit clarity. That's kind of true. So there are some

580
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:17,960
Speaker 1: specific words that will be very useful to you, useful

581
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 1: modifiers like some. Isn't that a great word because some

582
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 1: could mean anything from one percent to it includes all

583
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 1: options except none or all. Yeah, it's like saying if

584
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 1: you were to say you're a real dirt bag, and

585
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:36,000
Speaker 1: you're like I don't know if the psychic really knows me.

586
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 1: Sometimes you're a real dirt bag, and then you have

587
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 1: to think, well, maybe I am, you know, whether you're

588
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 1: mostly a dirt bag or only occasionally a dirt bag.

589
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, there's got to be at least some

590
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: moment in your personal history where you're like I was

591
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:52,120
Speaker 1: kind of sliding towards the dirt bag level of the one. Yeah,

592
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:55,840
Speaker 1: So that sometimes some and then at times that's a

593
00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: great one because at times that that sounds like psychological

594
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 1: test language. At the same time, you want to convince

595
00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:12,799
Speaker 1: the mark here that the Barnum profile is unique, right, uh.

596
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 1: And this was key and for his experiment, um uh.

597
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,000
Speaker 1: And he actually described the following scene after he had

598
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:21,799
Speaker 1: collected feedback on the test. He said he was going

599
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,239
Speaker 1: to read a list of selected traits out loud, and

600
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 1: if the students had the trade on their profile, they

601
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 1: needed to raise their hand. After four read the first trade,

602
00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 1: every hand in the room went up and then the

603
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 1: students burst out laughing. The moment the students realized their

604
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 1: profiles were not unique, that's when they instantly knew the

605
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: personality sketch was bunk. So in this we get into

606
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,200
Speaker 1: the whole fortune cookie scenario, Like, if you know all

607
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 1: the fortune cookies are the same, the only way you're

608
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:48,920
Speaker 1: gonna get into it is if you suspend disbelief or

609
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,719
Speaker 1: even just you know, it's hard to even have the

610
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:55,920
Speaker 1: magical thinking cranked up high enough to buy a fortune cookie.

611
00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:58,680
Speaker 1: It's amazing how much that works. I mean, even knowing

612
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:01,560
Speaker 1: what we know about fortune co he's not thinking they're magical.

613
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:04,200
Speaker 1: Imagine if you were sitting at a table and everybody

614
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:06,600
Speaker 1: opened their fortune cookie at the Chinese restaurant and they

615
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:09,960
Speaker 1: all had the same fortune on them, Like it wouldn't

616
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:12,759
Speaker 1: even feel as significant to you as it normally does

617
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 1: when you normally know it's not significant, right, But if

618
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 1: you have the at least the illusion that has been

619
00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 1: personally prepared for you, like nobody does this. But what

620
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:23,680
Speaker 1: if the fortune cookie chef came to your table as

621
00:35:23,719 --> 00:35:26,439
Speaker 1: if they were going to you know, customer poportulary. Yeah,

622
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 1: and you know, did some sort of you know, I

623
00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 1: don't know, some sort of ritual right, or you know,

624
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:34,759
Speaker 1: did something scanned you with some sort of device and

625
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 1: then read it out on a meter and then wrote

626
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:40,880
Speaker 1: it down. If you had table preparation side fortune cookie preparation.

627
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,799
Speaker 1: This could be big. This would allow you to to

628
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:48,200
Speaker 1: perceive it as an individualized exercise, and then you would say,

629
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,319
Speaker 1: of course you would buy it, even if it's like

630
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 1: one of those really horrible fortune cookies that just throws

631
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:57,280
Speaker 1: out some little adage rather than even attempting to forecast

632
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:02,000
Speaker 1: your future. Yeah, so here's another one. Be flattering, flatter

633
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,400
Speaker 1: the person. One of the findings of a nineteen literature

634
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:09,320
Speaker 1: review by Dixon and Kelly was that there's some evidence

635
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: that positive or favorable assessments are more readily accepted as accurate.

636
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:17,759
Speaker 1: So if you're reading a list of traits that are

637
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 1: your feedback from the personality test you took, if they're

638
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: mostly negative, you're less likely to say this is very accurate.

639
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:27,200
Speaker 1: Then if they're mostly positive, and it doesn't have to

640
00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:29,719
Speaker 1: mean that they're all positive. In fact, I would think

641
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,760
Speaker 1: that might not work if they're all just glowing reviews

642
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:34,880
Speaker 1: of you. So what I would do if I was

643
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:37,600
Speaker 1: designing one of these is make it eighty to nine

644
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 1: deep percent really nice things about you and then a

645
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:44,279
Speaker 1: couple of harmless criticisms. Yeah, you want to have it,

646
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of like buying a character in fiction, right,

647
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:48,440
Speaker 1: they need to have some flaws, they need to have

648
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 1: some some some strengths. You need to be able to

649
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 1: get behind the the idea that is the real person.

650
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:55,560
Speaker 1: But they have to be overall likable or nobody's going

651
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 1: to buy them as the protagonist. Well, I don't know

652
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:02,319
Speaker 1: if that's true for fiction, because well, who doesn't love

653
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 1: Snake Pliskin. He has positive attributes. You know, he's he

654
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:10,440
Speaker 1: stands up for what he believes in. He's true to himself. Yeah,

655
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:14,279
Speaker 1: and you know he's uh, he's he's also true to

656
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:16,560
Speaker 1: his crew. That's important too. You know, like when he

657
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 1: gets out and he finally talks to the president, you know,

658
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:21,400
Speaker 1: the first thing he says is, like, these people, well

659
00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 1: some of these people died for you. You know, you

660
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:25,840
Speaker 1: gotta gotta stand by them. And the president's too busy prepping,

661
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 1: and that's what he decides to tear up the tape.

662
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:31,200
Speaker 1: So but but yeah, when a character is just too

663
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:35,960
Speaker 1: unlikable instantly comes to mind that show Last Minute on Earth.

664
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 1: I don't know if you watched this Will Forte in

665
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:42,640
Speaker 1: the League playing the this uh, this man who survived

666
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:46,080
Speaker 1: after the apocalypse, and it's and then he starts encountering

667
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:50,480
Speaker 1: random survivors, but he's the center of it and it's

668
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 1: a good show. But the character is so unlikable that

669
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,280
Speaker 1: I ended up one of the last episode I watched.

670
00:37:57,280 --> 00:37:59,320
Speaker 1: I think I spent the whole thing just hoping Cannibal

671
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 1: while drors would show up and eat him, because it's like,

672
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:05,359
Speaker 1: I can't really get behind him because he's so despicable.

673
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:08,120
Speaker 1: Oh man, I think of this because just a couple

674
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:10,759
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, on July four, we in our house

675
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,520
Speaker 1: watched Jaws, which we do everywhere on July four. Yeah,

676
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: but have you ever read the book? No, I haven't.

677
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:22,360
Speaker 1: Every single character is detestable there. There's not a single

678
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 1: even remotely likable character that I don't know. I have

679
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 1: no idea whether that was intentional or not. But you

680
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 1: just want the shark to eat them all weird, and

681
00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:33,560
Speaker 1: they had to change it for the movie. It's hard

682
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: to imagine that now with as like lovable as Quint

683
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:39,000
Speaker 1: is in the movie. Yeah, that's weird. No I read.

684
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,600
Speaker 1: I read Peter Benchley's Beast about the Giant Squid, But

685
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 1: that's the only Benchley book I've ever read. Yeah, I've

686
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:50,400
Speaker 1: never ventured into the Benchley deep cuts. That's that's that's

687
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: the only cut I've listened to. But it was fun

688
00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:55,879
Speaker 1: in the day. Somebody fights a giant scud of the chainsaw. Right,

689
00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:58,839
Speaker 1: oh wait, let's get back. Yes, yeah, we have one more,

690
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 1: and this one is pretty simple. Project high status and

691
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: scientific authority. It kind of like if you put this

692
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 1: in the guise of the psychic reader or the magician,

693
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:11,440
Speaker 1: like we're a fancy cloak, have a cool beard, right, Like,

694
00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:14,799
Speaker 1: drape yourself in the authority of the station you're in.

695
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:17,759
Speaker 1: And if you're trying to, uh to to pull this off,

696
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,759
Speaker 1: it's like a personality assessment thing, like, have some sort

697
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 1: of scientific authority to you throw out some scientific lingo,

698
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:26,040
Speaker 1: have some sort of gadget that you will whip out

699
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 1: at your table side fortune cookie preparation, right. I. I

700
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:32,000
Speaker 1: actually tried to incorporate this into the little deception I

701
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:33,919
Speaker 1: used at the beginning of the episode when I said

702
00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:37,600
Speaker 1: that the test we used was a survey created by

703
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:41,200
Speaker 1: the Society for Personality and Social Psychology subdivision of the

704
00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:43,759
Speaker 1: A p A, which is a real subdivision. Don't know

705
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:47,200
Speaker 1: if they've ever created a test, but yeah, it sounded

706
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:50,319
Speaker 1: accurate because you're throwing out some some some jargon, throwing

707
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 1: out the name of an organization, and your mind kind

708
00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:54,640
Speaker 1: of stops listening and just sort of checks it off, like, yeah,

709
00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:57,439
Speaker 1: that sounds that sounds accurate. Yeah. Now, there of course

710
00:39:57,440 --> 00:39:59,760
Speaker 1: a number of positives here. As we was, we touched

711
00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:01,640
Speaker 1: on you know, you can have fun with a fortune cookie,

712
00:40:01,719 --> 00:40:04,879
Speaker 1: you can enjoy your horoscope, you can people love these

713
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:08,960
Speaker 1: online personality quizzes. Yeah, you can appreciate the you know,

714
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:11,239
Speaker 1: some sort of personal satisfaction in finding out that you're

715
00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:15,080
Speaker 1: Wolverine um. And in some cases I maintain you can

716
00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:19,920
Speaker 1: you know, and the right kind of psychic can can

717
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:21,799
Speaker 1: get inside your head a little bit and have a

718
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:23,640
Speaker 1: positive effect on you. I mean you could argue that

719
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:27,080
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, therapists you're using the same the

720
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:30,160
Speaker 1: same devices, they're just using it with some sort of

721
00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:33,560
Speaker 1: ethical um structure in place. Oh yeah, this is a

722
00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:36,640
Speaker 1: thing that is I've read pointed out about some psychics before,

723
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:38,799
Speaker 1: like it doesn't have to be true that they have

724
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:42,440
Speaker 1: psychic powers, like the paranormal doesn't have to exist for

725
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,160
Speaker 1: them to perhaps have insights that are useful to you.

726
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:48,120
Speaker 1: So there's an actually a really good article on this

727
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:49,480
Speaker 1: and I'll link to this in the landing page of

728
00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 1: this episode. Susan Krauss of Whitburn's when it comes to

729
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,680
Speaker 1: personality test, a dose of skepticism is a good thing.

730
00:40:55,719 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 1: And this is from Psychology Today, and she presents first

731
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 1: of all, the dark side of the for effect um

732
00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:05,000
Speaker 1: as as really coming down to key three key things. One,

733
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,239
Speaker 1: it allows others to scam you out of money, right

734
00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:10,239
Speaker 1: because because of the thing for mentioned where if if

735
00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:12,960
Speaker 1: it works on you once, now you have logged in

736
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 1: your brain. Okay, this device is worth trusting. And that

737
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:20,879
Speaker 1: device could be a particular test, could be apology, could

738
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:25,360
Speaker 1: be a psychic on TV, could be an advertising UM slogan,

739
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:27,719
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, they really kind of got into

740
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:29,760
Speaker 1: who I am. They know who I am. I should

741
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,399
Speaker 1: buy their shampoo. Um. Number two, it makes you more

742
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:36,440
Speaker 1: susceptible to bad advice. You kind of touched them that already,

743
00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 1: but yeah, they're they're they're in your head. You're you're

744
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 1: trusting them, and now they can start telling you all

745
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,839
Speaker 1: sorts of horrible things. And then number three, it makes

746
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:48,399
Speaker 1: you less susceptible to good advice that isn't as lubricated.

747
00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:51,280
Speaker 1: Oh man, So if somebody. So let's say you take

748
00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:55,520
Speaker 1: a very well designed psychology test that gives you a

749
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:58,759
Speaker 1: good profile of your personality that has all kinds of

750
00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:02,360
Speaker 1: specifics that aren't as packaged as these vague generalities. You

751
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,400
Speaker 1: would get another test, you might actually not trust the

752
00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:09,239
Speaker 1: good feedback. Yeah, Or imagine the pyramid scheme guy, you know,

753
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:11,399
Speaker 1: like he's coming up, he's buying your drinks, he's really

754
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:13,480
Speaker 1: laying it on thick. You're really buying into what he's

755
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:16,480
Speaker 1: selling because he's selling it so well, and he's he's

756
00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:20,560
Speaker 1: already gained your trust. Meanwhile, your actual accountant is saying, hey,

757
00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 1: you really need to be careful about these investments. But

758
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:26,680
Speaker 1: your actual accountants kind of boring and make yourself and

759
00:42:26,719 --> 00:42:30,200
Speaker 1: he doesn't. His information isn't as well lubricated as that

760
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:35,560
Speaker 1: of the charlatan. So she has four key recommendations to

761
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:37,799
Speaker 1: avoid the pitfalls, just to you know, just to keep

762
00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:41,000
Speaker 1: it in your mind as you're moving through life. Number one,

763
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:44,200
Speaker 1: No a fortune cookie when you see one. Obviously, that's

764
00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 1: that's my summation of this particular one. But yeah, like

765
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:50,640
Speaker 1: you know what you're dealing with. Yeah, beyond the lookout

766
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:54,680
Speaker 1: for statements that are universally valid and recognize them as such. Right, Yeah,

767
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:57,160
Speaker 1: that's the second way you look for evidence of validity.

768
00:42:57,320 --> 00:42:59,799
Speaker 1: Read between the lines, look for that ambiguity we've been

769
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,080
Speaker 1: talking thinking about is this a statement that could apply

770
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:05,239
Speaker 1: to anyone? And I'm just grabbing onto the bait and

771
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:11,279
Speaker 1: then finally trust actual professionals as opposed to advertisements and

772
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:15,320
Speaker 1: TV psychics. No, no, no, wait no, maybe you haven't

773
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:20,399
Speaker 1: encountered my favorite TV psychic. Uh, doctor You're so great? Now,

774
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:24,120
Speaker 1: Doctor you're so great? Has some really interesting things to

775
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:29,280
Speaker 1: say about how smart I am. Yeah, dr You're so Yeah.

776
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:31,040
Speaker 1: Well they can they can be very convincing. I you know,

777
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:33,560
Speaker 1: I don't watch as much TV these days, and not

778
00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:35,040
Speaker 1: like you know in the old days, you turn on

779
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:36,840
Speaker 1: the TV and you just had to absorb what it

780
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: gave you. So I don't even know what's out there.

781
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:41,400
Speaker 1: Are there other YouTube psychics the way there used to

782
00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 1: be TV psychics? I would hope so. But like there

783
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:45,800
Speaker 1: was the guy with the gray plastic hair. Do you

784
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:48,959
Speaker 1: remember him? No? What is that? Oh goodness, I should

785
00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:51,160
Speaker 1: have I should have thought to look him up before

786
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:53,600
Speaker 1: the podcast episode, but he had it was like this

787
00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:57,000
Speaker 1: just normal looking, kind of Doughey dude, and he had

788
00:43:57,239 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 1: hair that was seemingly made out of plastic. I just

789
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:02,440
Speaker 1: googled psychic gray plastic hare and the first result is

790
00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:07,320
Speaker 1: Dorian Gray syndrome. M Well, now I'm even more intrigued

791
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:10,759
Speaker 1: that he may have this man they have suffered from

792
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:14,240
Speaker 1: some sort of disorder that involved in aging painting. But

793
00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:16,279
Speaker 1: but certainly there was just a whole world's gallery of

794
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 1: TV psychics back in the day. Certainly, but you know

795
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:23,359
Speaker 1: they're each unique one and all. Yeah, but again there's

796
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:26,800
Speaker 1: still the other positive side to this is that allows

797
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:29,239
Speaker 1: us to really get into our music, right, Oh yeah,

798
00:44:29,239 --> 00:44:31,160
Speaker 1: of course. We were talking about this the other day

799
00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:36,080
Speaker 1: with the the general lyrical themes of pop music, and

800
00:44:36,120 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this in contrast to the way

801
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:43,959
Speaker 1: you handle specificity versus generality and fiction. If you're writing

802
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,120
Speaker 1: a short story or a novel or something like that,

803
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:48,879
Speaker 1: you don't want to sketch characters in a general way.

804
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:50,800
Speaker 1: You want to sketch them in a specific way, to

805
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:53,560
Speaker 1: have interesting, unique details that make them who they are.

806
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:57,360
Speaker 1: For some reason, in fiction we connect better with specifically

807
00:44:57,440 --> 00:45:01,000
Speaker 1: drawn characters. But in pop music, very often, if you

808
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:04,839
Speaker 1: look at the lyrics, they are utterly devoid of specifics.

809
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:08,720
Speaker 1: They are they're they're doing this game where you paint

810
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:12,760
Speaker 1: in extremely vague generalities that could apply to almost any

811
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:16,200
Speaker 1: person at any time, and people do seem to respond

812
00:45:16,200 --> 00:45:18,560
Speaker 1: to that. Yeah, because often the generalities are you know,

813
00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:21,160
Speaker 1: kind of mantras that you can get behind, uh, you know,

814
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 1: statements of power, like like I remember, like when I

815
00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:27,280
Speaker 1: would listen to like nine h Nails in high school,

816
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 1: there would be you know, it seems like in more

817
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:31,160
Speaker 1: than one song he would throw in that line nothing

818
00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:33,239
Speaker 1: could stop me now, you know, and you know kind

819
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:35,360
Speaker 1: of a you know, a dark gothy nine inch Nails la.

820
00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:37,080
Speaker 1: But you listen to you like, yeah, nothing could stop

821
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:38,480
Speaker 1: me now you kind of pumping yourself up with it.

822
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:41,800
Speaker 1: This is about my life, yeah, because I am facing

823
00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:44,839
Speaker 1: a challenge that I should not be stopped from. How

824
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:47,640
Speaker 1: did he know so much about me? Trend just knows Trent.

825
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:51,359
Speaker 1: Trent is a man of insight. Um. Likewise, another one

826
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:55,360
Speaker 1: for me several years back, like a definite pop example,

827
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:59,840
Speaker 1: the band Larou had to track Bulletproof, where the chorus

828
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:02,279
Speaker 1: next time, baby, I'll be bulletproof and I don't know

829
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:05,960
Speaker 1: what's even possibly it was specifically about but even you know,

830
00:46:05,960 --> 00:46:07,720
Speaker 1: I would listen to and it was a catchy tune

831
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: and I would think, yeah, I'm gonna be bulletproof, you

832
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:12,640
Speaker 1: can't stop me. Yeah, the same kind of it's the same. Yeah,

833
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:16,319
Speaker 1: it's it's the trend principle, the tread principle. How about yourself,

834
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:20,839
Speaker 1: any pop songs that resonate with you? Yeah, just looking

835
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,279
Speaker 1: back in my history in my music player app, I

836
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:26,120
Speaker 1: think it's funny looking at the contrast between different types

837
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:28,480
Speaker 1: of lyrics. Like one of the things I see is

838
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:31,960
Speaker 1: Lauretta Lens Don't come Home and drinking with Loving on

839
00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:35,920
Speaker 1: your Mind, which I mean that's pretty specific song, like

840
00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:38,640
Speaker 1: that tells a specific story. On the other hand, You've

841
00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:42,480
Speaker 1: got don't stop thinking about Tomorrow. Yeah, I mean that's

842
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 1: how much more general could it be? You could be like, wow,

843
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:48,919
Speaker 1: they really, they really got me because I'm thinking about

844
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:51,200
Speaker 1: the weekend or that you know, I'm going to get

845
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 1: something done tomorrow. The MAC knows, the mac knows how

846
00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:56,400
Speaker 1: we think, right, and of course that that that does

847
00:46:56,520 --> 00:46:59,000
Speaker 1: underligne like the two big trends in song, right, you

848
00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 1: have those those ultras cific songs or even narrative songs. Yeah,

849
00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:05,080
Speaker 1: like I'm thinking like Gordon Lightfoot type of vibe where

850
00:47:05,080 --> 00:47:08,240
Speaker 1: you're telling a very definite story about a particular scenario

851
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:10,640
Speaker 1: and with its own ups and downs, and then on

852
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:14,480
Speaker 1: the other side, don't stop thinking about tomorrow. The generic

853
00:47:14,560 --> 00:47:18,840
Speaker 1: anthems that you can just copy and paste your life onto. Indeed,

854
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:23,120
Speaker 1: the classification of anthems is key, al right, so that

855
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 1: you have it, the for effect, the Barnum effect, whatever

856
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,799
Speaker 1: you want to call it. It's all around us. It's uh,

857
00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:32,360
Speaker 1: it's in our it's in our religious lives, it's in

858
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:35,319
Speaker 1: our secular lives. It's in our advertising, it's in UH,

859
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:38,719
Speaker 1: it's in our our culinary taste. So we know that

860
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:42,480
Speaker 1: everyone has has something to share on this particular topic.

861
00:47:42,560 --> 00:47:44,600
Speaker 1: So we'd love to hear from you. In the meantime,

862
00:47:44,760 --> 00:47:46,360
Speaker 1: check out Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. That

863
00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:48,839
Speaker 1: is the mothership. That's where you will find all the episodes.

864
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:52,080
Speaker 1: You'll find blog post videos, you'll find links out to

865
00:47:52,080 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 1: our social media account. We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumbler.

866
00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:56,799
Speaker 1: And if you want to let us know how you

867
00:47:56,880 --> 00:48:00,120
Speaker 1: reacted initially to our story about the audience surveyor or

868
00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:01,600
Speaker 1: if you want to tell us a story you have

869
00:48:01,719 --> 00:48:05,280
Speaker 1: about somebody falling for the horror effect or the Barnum effect.

870
00:48:05,480 --> 00:48:07,520
Speaker 1: You can let us know at blow the Mind at

871
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:14,239
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com for more on this and

872
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:16,879
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot

873
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 1: com