Indigo-Forer Effect

The Forer Effect (also known as the P.T. Barnum Effect, or "We've got something for everyone") is a way of explaining a set of criteria used to describe something. When the criteria become so broad as to describe anything, it then describes nothing.

An example of this is when Dr. Bertram Forer gave his students a personality test. Each student was given the same result, but was told it was a personalized analysis. They were then asked to rank the result on a scale of 0-5. The resultant average was 4.26. Multiple validations of this experiment have held the average to be 4.2.

When examining the characteristic types of a category referred to as Indigos, at first read it appears to be of the same ilk. However, since no research studies have been done to demonstrate this, the need for a definitive answer arose.

The list of characteristics of the proposed class of individuals known as Indigos is as follows:

The list of characteristics is as follows (Carroll & Tober, 1999):

• They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it).
• They have a feeling of “deserving to be here,” and are surprised when others don’t share that.
• Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell the parents “who they are.”
• They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
• They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.
• They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don’t require creative thought.
• They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like “system busters” (not conforming to any system).
• They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of similar consciousness around them, they often turn inward, feeling that no other human being understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.
• They will not respond to “guilt” discipline ("Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did”).
• They are not shy in letting you know what they need.

This list is also repeated at http://www.indigochild.com

I posited that the categorization is nothing more than subject validation, or The Forer Effect. This should be able to be demonstrably shown with a similar experiment to Dr. Forer's.

Methodology

The following survey will be offered to a pool of respondents: http://coreyreichle.fi.st/Survey/Survey-10-001

The methodology is as follows:

1. Have the respondent answer several demographics questions.
2. Have the respondent answer several personality-related questions.
3. Give the respondent a description of the personality using the given attributes, while changing the wording as little as possible; and ask the respondent to rate how well it applies to them(1-5).

<?php
$server='localhost';
$db='ubergeek_survey';
$pass='****';
$user='****';
$dberror="We're sorry.  There was a database connection problem.  Please contact me at coreyreichle@verizon.net.  Thank you for 
your patience.";

$connection = mysql_connect($server,$user,$pass) or die($dberror);
$db_selection = mysql_select_db($db,$connection) or die($dberror);

$page=$_GET["page"];

if ( $page == 1 ) pg1();
if ( $page == 2 ) pg2();
if ( $page == 3 ) pg3();
if ( $page == 4 ) pg4();
die();

function pg1(){
header( 'Location: http://coreyreichle.fi.st/Survey/Survey-10-001-2' ) ;
$server='localhost';
$db='ubergeek_survey';
$pass='****';
$user='****';
$dberror="We're sorry.  There was a database connection problem.  Please contact me at coreyreichle@verizon.net.  Thank you for 
your patience.";

$connection = mysql_connect($server,$user,$pass) or die($dberror);
$db_selection = mysql_select_db($db,$connection) or die($dberror);

$pg1_query='INSERT INTO pg1 (hash,age,race,gender,marital,employment,education,family) VALUES("'.md5($_SERVER[REMOTE_ADDR]).'","'
.$_POST["age"].'", "'.$_POST["race"].'", "'.$_POST["gender"].'", "'.$_POST["marital"].'", "'.$_POST["employment"].'", "'
.$_POST["education"].'", "'.$_POST["family"].'");';

echo $pg1_query;

if (!mysql_query($pg1_query,$connection))
  {
  die(mysql_error());
  }

mysql_close($connection);
return;
}

function pg2(){
header( 'Location: http://coreyreichle.fi.st/Survey/Survey-10-001-3' ) ;
print 'Nothing done!';
return;
}


function pg3() {
header( 'Location: http://coreyreichle.fi.st/Survey/Survey-10-001-4' ) ;
print 'Nothing done!';
return;
}

function pg4(){
header( 'Location: http://coreyreichle.fi.st/Survey/Survey-10-001-5' ) ;
$server='localhost';
$db='ubergeek_survey';
$pass='****';
$user='****';
$dberror="We're sorry.  There was a database connection problem.  Please contact me at coreyreichle@verizon.net.  Thank you for 
your patience.";

$connection = mysql_connect($server,$user,$pass) or die(mysql_error());
$db_selection = mysql_select_db($db,$connection) or die(mysql_error());

$pg2_query='INSERT INTO pg2 (hash,matching) VALUES(\''.md5($_SERVER[REMOTE_ADDR]).'\',\''.$_POST["match"].'\');';

echo $pg2_query;

if (!mysql_query($pg2_query,$connection))
  {
  die(mysql_error());
  }

mysql_close($connection);
return;
}

?>

The following is an archive of the survey source code: Survey.zip.

The questions from the personality profile section of the survey are discarded. The question were derived from publicly available samples, such as job interview questionnaires, personality quizzes generated by users of social networks, etc. and have no known basis for quantifying a personality profile in a reliable manner.

Results

The complete data set can be downloaded here, as a MySQL database dump: Survey.sql

Respondents Answer	Total
Null answer	1
Completely fits	3
Does not fit at all	5
Mostly does not fit at all	8
Mostly fits	16
Somewhat fits	10
Total Answers	43

Demographic Information:

Conclusion

Contributors

Author: Corey Reichle

Others: