175. Why Is Astrology So Popular?

No Stupid Questions

Why does your horoscope seem so accurate? Is it possible to believe and not believe in something at the same time? And is Mike a classic Gemini?

• SOURCES:
  • P. T. Barnum, 19th-century American showman and businessman.
  • David Brooks, New York Times Opinion columnist.
  • Bertram Forer, 20th-century American psychologist.
  • Daniel Kahneman, professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University.
  • Irving Kirsch, associate director of the Program in Placebo Studies and lecturer in medicine at Harvard Medical School.
  • Sten Odenwald, Director of STEM Resource Development at NASA.
  • Sydney Page, staff reporter for The Washington Post.
  • Jane L. Risen, professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Young People Are Flocking to Astrology. But It Comes With Risks," by Sydney Page (The Washington Post, 2023).
  • "The Age of Aquarius, All Over Again!" by David Brooks (The New York Times, 2019).
  • "Response Expectancy and the Placebo Effect," by Irving Kirsch (International Review of Neurobiology, 2018).
  • "Believing What We Do Not Believe: Acquiescence to Superstitious Beliefs and Other Powerful Intuitions," by Jane L. Risen (Psychological Review, 2016).
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2011).
  • "Effects of Stress and Tolerance of Ambiguity on Magical Thinking," by Giora Keinan (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1994).
  • Changing Expectations: A Key to Effective Psychotherapy, by Irving Kirsch (1990).
  • "The Fallacy of Personal Validation: A Classroom Demonstration of Gullibility," by Bertram Forer (The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1949).
  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

• EXTRAS:
  • "What Do Broken-Hearted Knitters, Urinating Goalkeepers, and the C.I.A. Have in Common?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
  • "Sam Harris: 'Spirituality Is a Loaded Term,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).