Humbugs of the world by P.T. Barnam Bar·num ef·fect noun PSYCHOLOGY the tendency to accept certain information as true, such as character assessments or horoscopes, even when the information is so vague as to be worthless. hum·bug ˈhəmˌbəɡ/ noun 1. deceptive or false talk or behavior. I was eating Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends. The subject turned to politics (Very popular and incendiary topic). We spoke about the false news stories that were in the (hopefully)