Illusory correlation and the MMPI.

The relationships between 10 behavioral descriptions and 10 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scale names were judged by 28 naive and 26 experienced student subjects. Both groups of judges produced large amounts of illusory correlation, with the experienced judges producing more. Estimates of strength of semantic association between the behavioral descriptions and scale names provided by 45 naive and 18 experienced male and female subjects tended to support the notion that semantic association is an important factor in producing illusory correlations, but there were some interesting exceptions to this tendency. The testing model was discussed as an analogue to the clinical situation.