Horoscopes have been popular on the internet for a long time, and many people are very superstitious about them. But have you ever wondered what is it that makes people believe them so much. Is it because the horoscopes are really credible, or is it because of something else?
In the process of learning psychology, I think I have found some possible explanations. To begin with, the people who most likely believe in horoscopes are teenagers. We can refer to the traits we always have during different stages of life, which in this case, is the adolescence. During this stage, teenagers may experience a concept in psychology called self-confusion. They usually have questions about who they are, and they try to find an answer for it. Therefore, they might turn to horoscopes to try and gain a better understanding of themselves.
Another possible explanation is the Barnum effect, where the main idea is that people believe that vague words can accurately describe their thinking and preferences. But if we take a careful reading of the descriptions for different horoscopes, we can see that the descriptions of it are not very different from each other - they tend to give out many vague descriptions about personality, characteristics or events. The readers of the horoscopes might have misconceptions about these vague descriptions and think they correspond to their own personality. This leads to a misconception of thinking where they believe they have found their true self. The descriptions always tend to have a similar meaning, such as “extroverted with friends, introverted with people that are not familiar with”. These descriptions may then be rephrased and put into a different horoscope; people are still willing to believe it is true.
In fact, many small problems like this in life can be explained by psychological concepts. There are still questions about whether horoscopes are true or not. But as teenagers, it is normal that we are trying to figure out ourselves, but we need to careful with the things we come into contact with. The best ways to find the real self are though peers, family and also experience; those can truly describe yourself and give you a clear guide line. Don’t let the text limit and define yourself as your life and personality is not confined to one horoscope; it will be more interesting and fascinating than you can imagine.