Abstract
The Enneagram is a 9-type personality system that has gained widespread acceptance as a tool for self-understanding and personal growth. Despite its popularity, empirical support for it is mixed and it has not been tested critically to see if it works due to psychological biases. We hypothesized that the Enneagram seems accurate because of the Barnum effect, which explains the tendency for people perceive vague and general personality descriptions as tailored to them. Specifically, we hypothesized that:
- The highest three Enneagram types will not be rated differently from each other on accuracy.
- The highest three Enneagram types will be rated as more accurate than the lowest three.
Included in
The Enneagram & the Barnum Effect
The Enneagram is a 9-type personality system that has gained widespread acceptance as a tool for self-understanding and personal growth. Despite its popularity, empirical support for it is mixed and it has not been tested critically to see if it works due to psychological biases. We hypothesized that the Enneagram seems accurate because of the Barnum effect, which explains the tendency for people perceive vague and general personality descriptions as tailored to them. Specifically, we hypothesized that:
- The highest three Enneagram types will not be rated differently from each other on accuracy.
- The highest three Enneagram types will be rated as more accurate than the lowest three.