When a astrologer tells a jataka that you did a hard struggle in your life, then jataka believe that there is only one person on the earth who actually read me and my inner soul. But truth is little bit different. There are hundred of prediction like that are psychologically correct but in terms of astrology, they are only giving pseudo sense of self well being. That kind of euphoric treatment leads a jataka to a blind end path. Once a person believe in a astrologer then astrologer may predict anything.
Now we have to look at the Forer effect
Astrology fails in general predictions of events in the mass, but it is highly successful in predicting in the case of individuals. Sometimes non-believers of this subject find accurate hits in their predictions. It is called ‘Forer effect’. Also known as ‘Barnum effect’. Psychological bias trying to prove that it is an individual’s affinity to descriptions.This is called personal validation fallacy. It prompts a person to take descriptions which are vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. at the time of prediction it is tailored for jataka.
The predilection of people to believe positive statements about themselves has been exploited professionally by P. T. Barnum, the 19th century American showman and entertainer. they think that people believe these statements even when there is no particular reason to do so. American psychologist Bertram R. Forer tried to approach it academically. He designed a classroom demonstration.
He gave his students a personality analysis to rate themselves on a scale of 0 to 5. Here “0” means very poor and “5” for excellent. The text of the analysis was as follows –
- You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself.
- While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them.
- You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage.
- Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside.
- At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
- You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
- You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others.
- At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic’.
Though all the students were provided with the same personality analysis the class average evaluation was 4.26 out of 5. The Forer test has been repeated hundreds of times over the years and the average was still around 4.2 out of 5 (84% accuracy). With this logic Forer convinced people that it is possible to ‘read the character’ successfully, without any additional divine powers. This personal validation fallacy works behind the widespread acceptance of astrology and other practices like palmistry and fortune-telling.
