How to fool almost everyone into thinking you’re as smart as Sherlock!

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Let’s start with the harsh truth: you aren’t as smart as Sherlock Holmes. You can never be as smart as Sherlock Holmes. It might have been possible in the late 1800s, when the world was still simple, but with all the variety, diversity and technology that’s now intertwined with human nature, no one person can be Sherlock, even after years and years of intensive study.

But no one really wants to listen to that, do they? They want to believe that people like Sherlock can exist. This is the exact belief that you can use to convince them that yes, you are a genius who can deduce their innermost secrets with a careless glance in their general direction.

All you have to do is make use of the Forer effect. Prof. Forer gave his students a personality test, and this is the result that every single one got back:

You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life

Finally, they were asked to rate how accurate the result was, from 0 to 5. The aggregate was 4.26.

Remember, these aren’t the average Joe, these are college-going students in a psychology class. These are the people who are supposed to detect bullshit like this, and they reported 85% accuracy. How was this result generated, anyway? Did Prof. Forer do some complex analysis, and come up with a bunch of statistically and psychologically appealing statements?

Nah, he just clubbed together some stuff he found in the horoscope.

Worse, in another experiment, they gave back 2 results, one actual assessment, and one general “guesswork” like the one above, which, let me emphasize, was based on no prior knowledge whatsoever. More than half the students chose the general one to be “a more accurate summary of their personality”.

You don’t even have to memorize that paragraph, just say some stuff which are vague, and extremely general, act as though you know all that they’re thinking and they’ll fill in the gaps for you. Just make sure you say a lot more good stuff than bad ones. In fact, studies show that there’s “no significant difference” even if you leave out the bad stuff entirely. Want to be even more certain? Pick on people who believe in the paranormal. They fall for this thing a lot more easily.

Just abide by these simple rules, and you’ll be getting your own pipe and deerstalker hat in no time.