Sex and the Barnum Effect: Rationality versus Helpfulness
In 1998 Piper-Terry and Downey found that women accepted friends' bogus test interpretations more readily than did men and the researchers attributed this to women's helpfulness. Layne countered that women are more open and thus rationally expected their friends' interpretations to be more accurate. Later Downey asked participants how accurately they believed their friends could describe their personalities. Although this pilot study's sensitivity to differences was low, the women's accuracy ratings still tended to exceed those of men (p <.06) as Layne predicted. This may suggest that the rationality hypothesis is better supported than the female-helpfulness hypothesis.