We’ve all heard about horoscopes, right? Were our futures are foretold and our love matches are made as a result of the movements of cosmic planets and so on. One may suggest this was more popular in ancient times when the world was rather naive, but you can be assured that people in modern times believe in horoscopes now probably more than those in the past and seldom fail to check what “fate” has in store for them each day.
Research has often suggested that these ‘predictions’ from horoscopes are just generalized, ambiguous and often feel-good. Some people are aware that it’s not necessarily genuine, yet still read their horoscope as it tells them what they want to hear or gives them some sense of hope, security or assurance which we humans naturally yearn for. Also, it calms ones fear of the unknown future which often makes us anxious. The validity on the other hand is still highly questionable. No surprise as it’s called pseudopsychology, ‘pseudo’ meaning ‘false’. However some will also argue that each time their ‘star sign’ described their day it usually happens that way. Or in areas of relationships, they genuinely believe that they are more compatible with a particular star sign, just as their horoscope suggests.
What happens is as we read these horoscopes before our day starts, it generally becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where we act, or understand events, having what we have read at the back of our minds. At the end of the day, it seems like the horoscope’s prediction was spot on. We are more likely to detect it’s inaccuracy when we read them at the end of the day, when the events of the day have already unfolded. Even at that, we find people using horoscopes to make sense of a situation that occurred during the day.
Horoscopes are very much an important part of peoples’ lives, so how do you stop people from deceiving themselves? Most times you can’t. We find that some people want to believe that they have no control over their lives, that everything is pre-destined ,so they just ‘go with the flow’. This train of thought could also be harmful as lack of control usually leads to psychological disorders. Moreover, people also take it too far by making major life decisions based on their horoscopes. However, as mentioned earlier, horoscopes give us some sense of assurance and a ‘window into the possible future’ which makes life easier for some.
Caught up in the horoscope hoax?
Here’s a trick, read all star signs’ horoscopes like they are yours.
Do this properly and you’d find that most of them can be applied to you. Simply because they are often generalized and ambiguous!
