How to write a horoscope

Invariably when we open a mid-day or Mumbai Mirror we land up reading our Horoscope – often that’s the only interesting thing to read J. Irrespective of whether we claim to be a believer of destiny and horoscopes we do land up reading and somewhere at the back of our mind assessing its implication/ applicability to whats happening in our life. And to your surprise almost 8 out of 10 times there is some applicability of the prediction on our life. In fact I even have a certain friend of mine who was so influenced by the Linda Goodmans Sun signs book that he decided that based on his sun sign he should marry a “Scorpio” and for a long time attempted only to look for Scorpio girls irrespective of the looks and how they behaved.
So are the Marjorie Orr (Mid-day fame) and the Bejan Daruwalas of Times of India crystal gazers and cousins of the (in)famous Nostradamus? Even if they are how do they write horoscopes which apply to billions of Taureans or Librans worldwide and make them feel it applies to them in some manner? Are the global destinies of all Taureans inter-linked?
The answer to a lot of these questions is “Barnum Effect”

The Barnum effect is the name given to a type of subjective validation in which a person finds personal meaning in statements that could apply to many people.

For example:
“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. At times you have serious doubts whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.”

Does the above statement sound similar to the ones we read in the news papers or “Sun Sign” based astrology books --- that may be because they did. Such statements are sometimes called Barnum statements and they are an effective element in the repertoire of anyone doing readings: astrologers, palm readers, psychics, rumpologists and so on.

If the statements appear on a personality inventory that one believes has been especially prepared for you alone, one often validates the accuracy of such statements and thereby gives validity to the instrument used to arrive at them. If Barnum statements are validated when they have originated during a psychic reading, the validation is taken as also validating the psychic powers of the medium.

"Barnum effect" is an expression that seems to have originated with psychologist Paul Meehl, in deference to circus man P. T. Barnum's reputation as a master psychological manipulator who is said to have claimed "we have something for everybody."

So the next time you read that horoscope and you think “woow it says I am going to have a financial gain today” – don’t go off and invest in the stock markets, just say “Barnum” five times and move on !!!