Psychology behind palm reading please…. ideas??…..?
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Some people believe in palm reading/tarot/astrology, but why? I understand there may be a link between the visualisation of symbols/signs on hands, cards etc and convincing belief but how else does it affect the person being assessed? Have there been any scientific testing (not biased!) of these fortune telling systems, and where is the source of these?
Tagged with: astrology • belief • cards • fortune • palm • signs • visualisation
Filed under: palm reading
A lot of people believe in these things as a source of hope and guidance in life. To some, it is almost like a religion-rather than needing proof they simply have faith in what they believe.
The problem with such acts is that they do not tell of truths or inevitable occurences, but of purposefully foggy predictions which can be easily interpreted in a variety of ways and moulded onto life. You can take 100 different people who believe and tell them all exactly the same thing and each one will believe it was a prediction just for them and no matter how different their lives are each will believe the prediction came true or is relevant to them. Try googling the Barnum effect-it describes how many people are fooled by ‘psychics’. PT Barnum coined the famous phrase "there’s a sucker born every minute".
When I was at University I attended a lecture by an expert in parapsychology, whose lifes work had found absolutely no evidence of accuracy in any of these predictive acts like palmistry, tarots, astrology and psychics/mediums. Many people were pretty pi**ed off by the lecture stating that it was faith, not proof that made these acts valuable so I guess in a way to some it is like a religion. Whilst much of it is harmless fun to most, I think real problems exist where desperate people are exploited by fraudsters. But each to their own and I guess many may find comfort in such things, even if the overall accuarcy is poor/vague.
Hope this helps.
all i have to say is EEEE ENNN EFFF PEEEE
ENFP…check it out thats me!
A fortune telling system relies on two things:
1. Ambiguous statements
2. Suspended disbelief
In order for the process to work, the person getting the reading must believe that it will because they will then actively look for events that could match the ambiguous statements or even contribute to the event’s existence (a self-fulfilling prophecy).
If seeing the future was possible, insurance would be obsolete.
Para-psychology would be the place to start but no evidence has been found that these so called ways to tell the future are bona fide.
It is just part of human nature to want to explain the world, to have order, to predict what will or is likely to happen…
There is even a word for (just cannot mind) – how in the likes of palmistry or astrology general statements are deemed by individuals to have highly significant meaning to them – ala – if someone said ‘you can be really outgoing but often doubt yourself and sometimes feel insecure’. People might think yeah that is so me – BUT it is also pretty much everyone else too! Some readings are even more vague than this ‘someone will come into money soon’ etc which could mean anything from winning a £1 on the lottery to getting a refund from the utility company etc – most people get money in from somewhere etc
Cues can also be gleamed from people’s body language – dejected = could say ‘you have had a hard time recently’ etc – as again most people do some times.. or whether wearing expensive clothes, a wedding ring – the list is endless..
Plus it has also been shown that people place too much meaning on the right parts of a reading and disregard the nonsense part..
To me it is ALL rubbish – it is a way to make £££ and nothing else. The psychology of what makes people believe it or perpetuate it though would be very interesting indeed.
No , Astrology is purely fake , there is not even a shred of evidence to support it .
Astrology was a primitive way of figuring out the "Why?"s and "How"s in the Universe by centering humans as the center of the Universe .plus it divides humanity based on no reason ( why should you let it dictate your life , i.e. hanging out with friends only when they are compatible horoscopes ? )
Yes, especially astrology. It’s called the Barnum effect. Basically, generalised accounts of personality/motives etc are rated very highly by *any* person if they are given them told this is a "specific assesment" of them. Lots of the text used in the original experiment came from horoscopes/astrology works.
There are other similar effects – self fulfilling prophecy and confirmationn bias being two of the best known. But the barnum effect is most relevant overall.
As for validity, see other sources below.
"Self-fulfilled prophecy" is a psychological concept that means you believe something is going to happen, then you passively cause it to happen as you begin to think and live according to the thing you are anticipating whether positively anticipating or negatively dreading something.
"Power of suggestion" is a psychological concept that means the word and suggestions of others upon you often motivate you and often manipulate you into acting, thinking, or living according to the content of the other person’s suggestion to you.
I think it is "self-fulfilled prophecy" and the "power of suggestion" that makes people go to them. The psychic/palm reader/tarot reader/astrologer/fortune teller, they tell you that you are going to be rich and famous then you sorta pursue that life and are either successful or unsuccessful. They tell you that you are going to be a loser – what do you do then?
Personally, I don’t believe in all that foolishness. God is sovereignly and providentially in control of our destiny not some gypsy fortune teller at a flea-bit carny side show. Palm readers should forget about telling the future and learn to read finger prints and help the police catch criminals – do something worthwhile with their lives.