Mgmt 506 - Organization Behavior

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My friend Mark, on the other hand, is adamantly opposed to gun control. Mark often goes out of his to and seeks out news sources that are aligned with his position, and when he comes across news stories about shootings, he interprets them in a way that supports his current point of view.

I am for gun control and Mark is pro guns and we often have evidence to back up our claims to fit our view.

SA05: Discuss at least two reasons why students fell prey to the “Barnum Effect” when receiving their self-awareness survey results in class. (10pts)

Answer (SA05): “The Barnum effect is named after P.T. Barnum, the showman who declared "there’s a sucker born every minute." He found many ways to separate "suckers", as he called gullible people, from their money. The Barnum effect in psychology refers to the gullibility of people when reading descriptions of themselves. By personality, we mean the ways in which people are different and unique. However, it is possible to give everyone the same description and people nevertheless rate the description as very accurate.” For example, 1) you pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept other statements without satisfactory proof, 2) you tend to be critical of yourself, or 3) at times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.

The initial results that was given that made me think that wow this survey really reflects what I was thinking but reality it was same for all of us and we interpret things as an independent thinker who doesn’t except without proof, being critical of yourself or have constant doubt about making right decisions. Self-validation is no validation. The second results, the actual results that comprised of a survey results of the population compared to mine, gave me a sense of direction and showed me where I stand with the rest of the population comparing the percentile with rest. Do not be fooled by a psychic, quack psychotherapist, or a phony faith healer who uses this trick. Be skeptical and ask for proof. There is a sucker born every minute unless you start to questions things, you may end up losing lot of money if to this phony service if you don’t ask question of proof, do these things really work? I am skeptical as always hence I believed in fortune cookie, for the fun of it, sure I enjoyed reading it but do I truly believe it? No! Barnum is suggesting that don’t believe everything you see unless there is a proof behind it.