The Forer Effect and Horoscopes

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Once upon a time in 1948, a psychologist named Bertrand Forer found himself with too much time on his hands and not enough Freud to occupy his thinking. He decided to do a little experiment on some gullible subjects [students] who were all trying to make good grades, and therefore participated.

He gave the subjects a personality test. After he had supposedly analyzed the tests, he gave each of the aforementioned subjects a personality analysis based on their responses to the questions from the personality test. Stay with me here.

The subjects were then told to rate the accuracy of their personal analysis on a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being very poor and 5 being very accurate. The average of the scores was 4.26.

After the ratings had all been turned in, Forer revealed that each person had received the exact same analysis. Boy, was everyone embarrassed.

Forer had assembled the personal analyses from parts of horoscopes. Here is an except:

"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."

Now why can't I write like that?

There are a lot of ways to categorize your signs. One way is to group them by 3's according to the elements air, earth, water, and fire. Seems like a lot of trouble to me, but OK, we'll go with that.

Air signs are Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. They symbolize intellect, or the lack thereof. They wear ponytails to hide the valve stems.

Earth signs are Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. They symbolize a lack of imagination and adherence to the status quo.

Fire signs are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. They are usually hotheads, and are most frequently found on unfortunate home video shows doing something stupid.

Water signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. They are overly sensitive, whiney brats.




The Four Elements of the Earth with the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac at AllPosters.com

Astral Projection is the process by which the human consciousness temporarily leaves the physical body and functions independently. It is an extraordinary experience. Thousands who have experienced it can vouch that it is absolutely real. Astral Travel is not dreaming. In fact, it is far more clear than our normal daily lives; our senses seem sharper and the environment somehow more real.

So since the economy has effectively tanked, you might as well try yourself some astral projection. Think of it as taking a vacation without having to leave home or spend money.

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I was doing a keyword search on MSN's Adcenter site awhile back to gauge the popularity of certain topics. That is what I do for fun.

As a matter of fact, no, I don't have a life.

Anyway, it occurred to me to search each of the zodiac signs individually to see just who was really the most needy. Here's what I found in numbers of searches:
Aquarius 3680
Pisces 3096
Aries 6314
Taurus 6960
Gemini 6362
Leo 7559
Virgo 4639
Libra 4801
Scorpio 4617
Sagittarius 1904
Capricorn 3290

Of course, if you search Cancer you get like a billion searches because on the first search you get cancer [as in disease] as well as Cancer [as in horosope], so it must be pretty hard for Cancer people to sift through everything to get the information they need.

But why is the number so low for Sagittarians? Is it just that they don't know how to spell Sagittarius, and therefore don't search, or are they just so apathetic toward their cosmic futures that they just don't bother?

Sagittarius birthdays run roughly from Thanksgiving to Christmas, a time in which most Americans are stuffing themselves mindlessly on soporific turkey, ham, and simple carbohydrates. Our minds wander only as far as what we will do with the leftovers, with barely a nod to the greater cosmic good. Could this be the source of Sagittarian apathy?

Leos run from mid-July to mid August. They are the most needy, and by a fairly significant amount, too. They are fire signs like Sagittarius. I feel there is something important about this information, but I'm not really sure what.