- Pollyanna principle
The Pollyanna principle or Pollyannaism describes the tendency for people to agree with positive statements describing them. It is sometimes called positivity bias. The phenomenon is similar to the
Forer effect .The concept as described by Matlin and Stang in 1978 used the archetype of
Pollyanna , a young girl with infectious optimism. [Matlin MW, Stang DJ (1978). "The Pollyanna principle: selectivity in language, memory, and thought". Schenkman, ISBN 978-0-87073-815-9]Critics of
personality test s like theMyers-Briggs Type Indicator argue that the tests are considered accurate by people exhibiting Pollyannaism.IBM Pollyanna Principle
The
IBM Pollyanna Principle is an axiom that states "machines should work; people should think." [Pearrow, M. (2002). "The Wireless Web Usability Handbook". Boston, MA: Charles River Media. ISBN 1-58450-056-5] This can be understood as a statement of extreme optimism, that machines should do all the hard work, freeing people to think (hence the reference toPollyanna ), or as a cynical statement, suggesting that most of the world's major problems result from machines that fail to work, and people who fail to think.References
*Furnham A, Schofield S (1987). Accepting personality test feedback: A review of the Barnum effect. "Current Psychological Research and Reviews".
*Hildebrandt HW (1979) The Pollyanna Principle in Business Writing: Initial Results, Suggestions for Research.
*Matlin MW, Gawron VJ (1979). Individual Differences in Pollyannaism. "Journal of Personality Assessment", Vol. 43, No. 4, Pages 411-412
*Paul AM (2004). "The Cult of Personality: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves". Free Press, ISBN 978-0-7432-4356-8
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