Most people read their horoscopes more often than they’d like to admit. Most people believe in horoscopes despite the fact that there is no evidence to support their claims simply because how “true” they are in their current lives. But why?
Horoscopes are allegedly a forecast of a person's future, typically including a delineation of character and circumstances, based on the relative positions of the stars and planets at the time of that person's birth.
That’s how they are claimed to work… but here is how it really works…
Horoscopes are made to be vastly general. By saying things like:
“On Wednesday work will be an exciting time.”
“On Friday there will be a positive turn in your love life.”
“But beware of Sunday because of [insert stars aligning to some planet] there will be turmoil on this day.”
Now let’s look at how these could be interpreted:
Jenny’s birthday is on Wednesday and she has noticed some of her co-workers being sneaky around her and is suspicious of a birthday surprise. “Wow that is an exciting time at work!”
On Friday Jenny is going out to a bar with some of her girlfriends. A bar… where single men and women usually go to meet and mingle with other single men and women. There is just no possible way that there would be intimate intentions at a bar. PSH. That’s outrageous.
On Sunday Jenny is planning to go to church with her family. But she just remembered that one of her siblings did something to make their mother upset, and maybe the secret will come out this weekend.
OH MY GOSH THE HOROSCOPE IS TRUE. ILLUMINATI CONFIRMED.
No… Jenny simply fitted things she knew would occur this week into the frame of the horoscope. Think of horoscopes like that game Mad Libs. There is a story frame already set up, now it is the reader’s job to fill in the blanks. Of course, when people play Mad Libs the ridiculous words they think of somehow pertain to their current life someway/somehow.
This is simply how the brain works. As cognitive misers, human minds are trained to assume and predict future possibilities to plan their current steps to get to that destination.
So no, horoscopes are not scientific, not factual, and not true. Even if they seem true, it is only because your mind filled the pieces of the astrological puzzle to fit just perfectly.
Oh well.
