tags: #publish links: [[Psychology]], [[Cognitive Biases]] created: 2022-07-27 Wed --- # Forer effect General, vague statements about you seem to be a close fit, due to various [[Cognitive Biases]]. (This is typically exploited via fortune telling etc) ## Forer effect and self image Per Scott Alexander, there's an interesting pattern and takeaway: a lot of typical "Forer Statements" involve an asymmetry between internal and external view, such as *You have a tendency to be critical of yourself*. - You have the **internal view** for yourself. - So you can see your own inner thoughts and judgements of yourself - You have a much less detailed view of other people - you only see their **external presented image**. - So you don't get to see that they're probably having much the same self-critical thoughts about themselves. Takeaway - on a lot of cases where you're perceiving yourself as different from others, a) it's quite likely that you're not, it just seems that way because you can't see inside their head; b) you could in fact give yourself a break by updating your comparisons a bit - i.e. it's pretty likely other people are perceiving the same (non-existent) "difference" that you are, in the other direction.