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OrpheusAgonistes -> RE: What role has the Forer Effect played in contemporary BDSM? (6/9/2010 6:15:01 PM)
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quote:
The Forer effect, A.K.A the Barnum Effect, states that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. Example many of the titles and labels used in the genre. To quote P.T.Barnum, "Come one, come all. The circus has something for everyone."
Do you think BDSM and the labels used in it were made deliberately vague so that the participants may supply their own interpretations? Since S&M was so dirty and carried stigmatization that BDSM and other Vague and pleasant phrases were used to justify actions or beliefs? Has the Forer Effect diluted the scene?
The "Forer Effect", as you note, describes the tendency of people to believe the accuracy of descriptions of their personality that are uselessly vague under certain conditions. These conditions usually include stipulations like the description is largely positive with one or two colourful and romantic "blemishes" thrown in for good measure, the description is being offered by someone who claims some high level of credibility and authority, and the description is worded in such a way that even though it's vague each victim of the sham honestly believes it applies uniquely to them. Horoscopes/Astrological traits are usually cited as the textbook example. Note: We Leos are aware that the traits of Leos (brilliance, ferocity, charisma, etc) really do apply to us.
In answer to your first question, I'd say "No, there was no deliberate effort to use the Forer Effect to water down 'the scene' (whatever that means." However, I do think that as any given subbacultcha becomes a little more accepted and a little more potentially profitable, market forces do tend to come into play and appeals are made to a wider audience. I don't think the process is a deliberate series of brilliant machinations, though, so much as it is a natural and gradual trend away from the dirty and taboo and toward the marketably taboo. See also: The punk scene of the mid 90s vs the punk scene of the late 70s.
I don't think the "Forer Effect" has been deliberately used to dilute and market "the scene" to the masses. But I do think that in any situation where broad descriptions of personalities are offered and people are invited to pick one as a self-identity, some people will over-identify with these broad descriptions and believe a bit too strongly in these identities as hard and fast rules. But this is natural and inevitable and I don't think the quibble is with "BDSM" so much as it is, more broadly, with pop psychology and its emphasis on cookie cutter personality types. In this sense, the Forer Effect is a useful critique of many of the popular ways people choose to describe the world and their place in it and it overlaps considerably with Karl Popper's principles of what constitutes a scientific theory to criticize Astrology, phrenology, huge swaths of pop psychology, etc etc.
I'd also hasten to add that at a certain point most of us (and most of the posters here) become sufficiently actualized that we no longer feel the juvenile need to plagiarize personae directly from pop culture handbooks and vague "personality type descriptions." Our exploration of kink becomes a more individualized, richer, and altogether more interesting exploration of our own private theaters of urges and desires. These urges and desires, unlike "the scene", are real. I'd echo LA's statement that you seem bright enough and certainly outspoken and with less polemical posts it will be interesting to see what you have to say.
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