[djoldman]

> Cognitive biases refer to the identifiable and indexable errors that are found in our judgment in a predictable and systematic way.

Ok.

Clicking through to the first one:

> The Barnum effect is a cognitive bias that induces an individual to accept a vague description of personality traits as applying specifically to themselves.

Then they give an example story of something reading like a horoscope.

The story could reasonably describe a large swath of people so I fail to understand how this is an "error" on the part of someone thinking that it describes them.

[cainxinth]

The key word is ‘specifically.’

[djoldman]

I think this makes sense if specifically meant "only" but it doesn't. It means "exact":

  Specifically: in a way that is exact and clear; precisely.

The story can specifically refer to multiple people. There is no definite error here as I see it.

[dane-pgp]

The word "specifically" can also be used as an antonym of "generally", meaning "by most people, or to most people".[0] If a story applies to most people, but someone reading the story doesn't consider that possibility, then they have made a small error.

[0] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/generall...