Are there scientific studies to support the phrase, “A Sucker Is Born Every Minute”?
There are no studies to support this statement, because it did not originate in the psychological, or any scientific community. It is often attributed to famed showman and huckster P. T. Barnum, but may have originated with one of his competitors, as a bit of sour grapes hyperbole. From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_is_a_sucker_born_every_minute The phrase, “There is a sucker born every minute,” is usually credited to P.T. Barnum. But when his biographer tried to track down when Barnum uttered this phrase all of his friends and acquaintances told him it was out of character. Joseph Bessimer is another candidate for coining this phrase. Along those lines, there is a piece at http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html which credits David Hannum with saying “there’s a sucker born every minute”. Barnum’s credo was more along the lines of “there’s a customer born every minute” — he wanted to find ways to draw new customers in all the time because competition was fier
