"Barnum statements", named after P. T. Barnum, the American showman, are statements that seem personal, yet apply to many people.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: And while seemingly specific, such statements are often open-ended or give the reader the maximum amount of "wiggle room" in a reading. They are designed to elicit identifying responses from people. The statements can then be developed into longer and more sophisticated paragraphs and seem to reveal great amounts of detail about a person. A talented and charismatic reader can sometimes even bully a subject into admitting a connection, demanding over and over that they acknowledge a particular statement as having some relevance and maintaining that they are just not thinking hard enough, or are repressing some important memory.
"Barnum statements", named after P. T. Barnum, the American showman, are statements that seem personal, yet apply to many people.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: And while seemingly specific, such statements are often open-ended or give the reader the maximum amount of "wiggle room" in a reading. They are designed to elicit identifying responses from people. The statements can then be developed into longer and more sophisticated paragraphs and seem to reveal great amounts of detail about a person. A talented and charismatic reader can sometimes even bully a subject into admitting a connection, demanding over and over that they a,cknowledge a particular statement as having some relevance and maintaining that they are just not thinking hard enough or are repressing some important memory.