Influencing Factors and Mechanisms of the Barnum Effect in MBTI Personality Tests: A Mixed-Methods Study

Influencing Factors and Mechanisms of the Barnum Effect in MBTI Personality Tests: A Mixed-Methods Study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Influencing Factors and Mechanisms of the Barnum Effect in MBTI Personality Tests: A Mixed-Methods Study Yang Gao This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9285999/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study adopted a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design to explore the existence, formation mechanisms, and influencing factors of the Barnum effect in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test, with 79 and 5 college students recruited for the quantitative and qualitative phases respectively. The results revealed three key findings: (1) The Barnum effect was significantly prevalent among participants, with no significant differences in its intensity based on gender or prior familiarity with the MBTI; (2) Female participants reported a significantly higher level of belief in the validity of personality tests than male participants; (3) Belief strength in personality tests positively predicted the intensity of the Barnum effect, explaining 61% of the variance in descriptive endorsement of vague personality descriptions. These findings reveal the cognitive bias underlying the public’s acceptance of MBTI results, provide empirical evidence for rationally viewing and using popular personality tests, and offer practical implications for intervening in the Barnum effect in personality assessment contexts. Physiology Barnum effect MBTI personality test suggestibility cognitive reflection mixed-methods study personality psychology Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9285999","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":615891860,"identity":"16258a5c-b828-4551-990b-3ec1784eac7f","order_by":0,"name":"Yang Gao","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA2ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACfmbG9h8fDNjk7O8/PkCcFsl25gbJGRV8xgwH0hKI02Jwnr1BmueMXGLDgRwDIl12mLHBmLfNjLGx4czHG28Y7OR0GwjoYGxmbEic25bGzMzYu9lyDkOysdkBAlqAShsOvG07xsbGzLtNmofhQOI2QlrYmIFO4m37z8PDxvOMOC08zECn8Zxhk5AAaiJOiwQzYxvjjAo2AwMJNmPLOQZE+MX+/PFnDMCorN8gwfzwxpsKOzmCWlCt5CE2apC0kKpjFIyCUTAKRgQAANn6PegUR0w9AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4616-0057","institution":"Inner Mongolia Normal University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yang","middleName":"","lastName":"Gao","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-04-01 03:33:49","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":true,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":true,"humanSubjectConsent":true,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9285999/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9285999/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105970661,"identity":"a9b3e9c6-7e64-4f67-b80e-0c1c798cb698","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-02 03:28:10","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1449057,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptEJPEBlinded.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9285999/v1_covered_4cf61486-3615-42e2-8259-2bf8abacd0c3.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInfluencing Factors and Mechanisms of the Barnum Effect in MBTI Personality Tests: A Mixed-Methods Study\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[{"identity":"f1e46d3e-c01b-44f4-8602-95064e1076a4","identifier":"10.13039/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","awardNumber":"32360200","order_by":0}],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":" Inner Mongolia Normal University","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Barnum effect, MBTI, personality test, suggestibility, cognitive reflection, mixed-methods study, personality psychology","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9285999/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9285999/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis study adopted a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design to explore the existence, formation mechanisms, and influencing factors of the Barnum effect in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test, with 79 and 5 college students recruited for the quantitative and qualitative phases respectively. 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