Film, Media & TV1 min ago
Birth signs - an apology
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On a recent thread about birth signs, I mentioned that I have been doing a course in doing personality readings and seemed to be reasonable good at it. I offered to do personalised readings if people would give me their birthdate and place of birth.
This is the original thread, top of page three, where I come in: http://snipurl.com/r4ms
(Continues below)
This is the original thread, top of page three, where I come in: http://snipurl.com/r4ms
(Continues below)
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Three people took me up on my offer. The first said of my reading "Bl00dy hell Waldo fekkin bang on mate", the second "wow waldo i have to say mate i am pretty impressed , that sounds pretty much bang on , wow thanks for that" and the third "Wow Waldo! Are you inside my head lol![...] you are spot on with the not so obvious, deeper traits. I am very impressed that you have uncovered the deeper and less obvious stuff...but it's freaky too, lol!"
I was pretty confident with the first two. The third not so confident. How have I managed to read people's personalities so accurately with just their date and place of birth to go on? Well, astrology is based on a set of true facts that means with some hard work and some decent books about the stars, one can work out virtually everything about a person.
At least, that's what some people would have you believe. In fact, I don't believe in astrology in the slightest. I think it's a load of pseudoscientific horse manure. So, how did I get these incredibly acurate readings? Did I hire spies to study my victims? Nope. I used the Forer Effect. Psychologist Bertram R. Forer discovered that people tend to accept general personality descriptions as being unique to them. In fact, he did an experiment where he gave a test to his students and gave them each a personality profile based on the results. He then asked the students to rate how accurately the profile matched their real personalities on a scale of one to five where five is the most accurate score. The students scored their profiles with an average of 4.2 out of 5, or over 84% accurate. All of them were given the exact same profile. Forer had cobbled it together from horoscopes from the paper without regard for which star signs were being described.
I was pretty confident with the first two. The third not so confident. How have I managed to read people's personalities so accurately with just their date and place of birth to go on? Well, astrology is based on a set of true facts that means with some hard work and some decent books about the stars, one can work out virtually everything about a person.
At least, that's what some people would have you believe. In fact, I don't believe in astrology in the slightest. I think it's a load of pseudoscientific horse manure. So, how did I get these incredibly acurate readings? Did I hire spies to study my victims? Nope. I used the Forer Effect. Psychologist Bertram R. Forer discovered that people tend to accept general personality descriptions as being unique to them. In fact, he did an experiment where he gave a test to his students and gave them each a personality profile based on the results. He then asked the students to rate how accurately the profile matched their real personalities on a scale of one to five where five is the most accurate score. The students scored their profiles with an average of 4.2 out of 5, or over 84% accurate. All of them were given the exact same profile. Forer had cobbled it together from horoscopes from the paper without regard for which star signs were being described.
I used Forer's exact text for my first victim. You can check this at: http://skepdic.com/forer.html "Bl00dy hell Waldo fekkin bang on mate"
For the second victim, I used the sample text found here: http://snipurl.com/r4nh "wow waldo i have to say mate i am pretty impressed , that sounds pretty much bang on , wow thanks for that"
For the third, I couldn't find any suitable example via Google, so I just made it up by copying lines from various sample personality profiles and making them vague. "you are spot on with the not so obvious, deeper traits"
The point is, I hope, clear. The claims of astrology are completely bogus. Despite being so vague they could apply to anyone, people will rate the depictions as highly accurate insights into their unique personalities.
I wish to apologise to my unwitting victims for my deception, and hope they will forgive me.
For the second victim, I used the sample text found here: http://snipurl.com/r4nh "wow waldo i have to say mate i am pretty impressed , that sounds pretty much bang on , wow thanks for that"
For the third, I couldn't find any suitable example via Google, so I just made it up by copying lines from various sample personality profiles and making them vague. "you are spot on with the not so obvious, deeper traits"
The point is, I hope, clear. The claims of astrology are completely bogus. Despite being so vague they could apply to anyone, people will rate the depictions as highly accurate insights into their unique personalities.
I wish to apologise to my unwitting victims for my deception, and hope they will forgive me.
Yes waldo, I totally agree (shock horror!). It's just another branch of the wonderful world of bovine guano. For similar reasons the mediums, psychics and other assorted charlatans can make a living, people want it to be true they hear what they want.
Now tell me my personality and I bet you won't even need my dob/pob!
Now tell me my personality and I bet you won't even need my dob/pob!
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Yes, Loosehead and Rubyrose, here's my predictions for you. And indeed anyone:
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. Blah vague, etc generalised, blah non specific rubbish and your birthchart strongly suggests you will have eyes.
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. Blah vague, etc generalised, blah non specific rubbish and your birthchart strongly suggests you will have eyes.
Leave it to me Waldo:
Hi Dancealot, you are an outgoing person who likes meeting people but at the same time you withhold a level of inert shyness that is not immediately obvious but becomes clear with familiarity. You are honest and generally reliable though I do sense an element of adventure, you mostly conform to day to day society but also love to rebel in small ways. You are quite passionate and demand loyalty from you close acquaintences, a loyalty that is more than repaid.
Hi Dancealot, you are an outgoing person who likes meeting people but at the same time you withhold a level of inert shyness that is not immediately obvious but becomes clear with familiarity. You are honest and generally reliable though I do sense an element of adventure, you mostly conform to day to day society but also love to rebel in small ways. You are quite passionate and demand loyalty from you close acquaintences, a loyalty that is more than repaid.
Have just looked at your links and actually I don;t think I would have fallen for them. In astrology readings I would be looking for traits of capricorn being mentioned first- which there are not, and then moon in saggitarius, venus in capricorn etc.. I can see totally how you could be describing just about every single human out there.
"By the way Waldo mate when you quoted me there hun, you did cut out the bit where I said I have some very dominant characteristics that you didn't mention! But now I am just trying to save face hahaha! "
Yes, but I put a link to the original and used elipsis to show I'd missed stuff out, so nerr! :-P
Yes, but I put a link to the original and used elipsis to show I'd missed stuff out, so nerr! :-P
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