When P. T. Barnum commented on the birthrate of a certain segment of the population, he had no idea that his dictum, along with his name, would one day become part of modern psychological terminology. Nonetheless, the expression Barnum Effect is used today to denote a subject’s willingness to accept personality test results as true, even though such results may be couched in terms so general as to be almost meaningless.
Experiments show that people tend to have positive attitudes toward personality test results even if the results provide little or no information of any value. Because of the tendency, it is important to be cautious with the “do-it-yourself” variety of personality tests. Even though the results obtained from such tests may be true, they may not tell you much more than you already know.
Mind Prober, from Human Edge Software, recquires particularly close scrutiny; especially because its developers claim it is more than a clever parlor game. Indeed, Mind Prober is billed as a serious business tool that can help you “read” business associates, employees, and acquaintances, thus putting you in a better position to predict and/or control their behavior. Described on the package as “personality software that lets you see people as they really are,” Mind Prober comes with a book that is supposed to introduce you to the study of personality and teach you how to read others. As is often the case with this type of product, the anticipation is better than the reality
Light Reading
Although thick in physical size, the Mind Prober book is thin in content. What promises to be a semischolarly treatise on the practical applications of personality theory turns out to be a repetitive account of the importance of reading others in business and social contexts. Anybody with a freshman course in psychology already know's more than the book provides. Consider, for example, such assertions as “The eyes have been called the windows of the soul,” or “Consciously or unconsciously, everyone develops beliefs and expectations about others.”
Had Mind Prober been billed as a game rather than a program that “will increase your understanding of personal dynamics and will enhance your perceptions of others,” much of my criticism would be inappropriate. After all, one wouldn’t criticize a flight simulation game simply because it didn't help you get a pilot s license, unless it promised to do so. So while Mind Prober would make an excellent game, it still needs to be judged on the basis of what it purports to do.
Probing Your Subject
The software is extremely easy to use. Double-clicking the Mind Prober icon opens a new file and prompts you to specify the age range and sex of the person you’re scrutinizing. Next the program presents you with a list of 79 adjectives, such as ambitious, apologetic, playful, and distant, and asks you to indicate whether or not each one applies to your subject. When you have clicked all 79 boxes, you generate a report, which you can print or save to disk for future reference... The report covers relationships, attitudes towards work, coping with stress, personal interests, attitudes towards sex (or, if the subject is under 18, attitudes towards school), and “what makes the subject tick.”
The first thing you notice about a Mind Prober report is that it seems to be remarkably perceptive. In fact, it seems to contain almost as much information about the person you’re analyzing as you know.
The amount of information should come as no surprise, however, when you realize that what Mind Prober does is rearrange the information you give it and put it into a coherent narrative form. Mind Prober rarely seems to be off the mark because the report reflects exactly what you know about the subject, no more and no less.
The danger is that someone may be fooled into thinking that the report is an accurate summary of a personality, when in fact the report is nothing more than a summary of what a person using Mind Prober knows about someone else. Unfortunately, the book encourages the belief that the report somehow captures a person’s “true” personality, even if you have known the person for only 5 minutes. Mind Prober is pop psychology at its worst. P. T. Barnum would have been proud.
Lavroff, Nicholas. (November 1985). Access for Success. Macworld. (pgs. 149, 151).
Human Edge Software
Games
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the_mind_prober.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Mini vMac
