Seven tools for thinking #7: Beware of ‘deepities’
This is the last of my posts on Daniel Dennett's tools for thinking outlined in Intuition Pumps. You can read the others here. Everyone wants to find meaning in their actions and the events which surround them; the idea that stuff just happens and there is no deeper meaning can be alarming. As such we are attracted to the profound. The Barnum effect - named after the American circus entertainer P.T. Barnum by the psychologist Paul Meehl in his essay Wanted - a Good Cookbook - is the observation that when we encounter vague, general statements we're inclined to leap on them and say, [...]