Why do people still read Horoscopes?

Horoscopes and astrology is an unusual beast that we have roaming around our daily lives, a seemingly mythical beast born which flourished in an agein the world where claims of reading futures in the stars seemed plausible but why does it continue to thrive in the current climate.

Horoscopes and astrology when tested by scientists have been shown to produce random results, unsurprising really, if people could accurately predict the future surely they wouldn’t need to rely on newspapers for money. Thinking about scientists testing horoscope predictions does bring forth an amusing image, what would be the criteria to test if a horoscope was true or false?

When you factor in the vagueness of horoscope predictions and appreciate the results apply to hundreds of millions of people, the task of testing the accuracy of the predictions becomes implausible, exhausting and pointless. The scope of the prediction would seem indicate the impossible job horoscopes have gleefully given themselves, imagine saying you could predict the future of 6 billion people divided into 12 star signs merely by looking up at the stars, planets and sun.

This leads me to my first odd point regarding horoscopes, everyone knows their own star sign, why? People like me who think it’s completely bonkers anyone could possibly tell anything about anyone’s future from looking at the moon, sun, planets and stars, yet I still know my star sign.

Why do I know my own star sign, up to this point in my life knowing my star sign hasn’t produced one single small benefit or accurate insight into the future? The only benefit which comes to mind is laughing at the future predicted for my designated star sign.

I’m not sure how many people believe in star signs and to what extent. I think a lot of people think the notion of astrology as a future predicting medium is nonsense.

Yet horoscopes and symbology are ubiquitous in society and are prevalent in every daily newspaper. I am not entirely clear whether the horoscope predicts the future on a daily forecast; it would seem to be this way because there is a new horoscope everyday. Yet the contents of horoscopes are generally so vague it doesn’t seem likely for them to occur in one day.

Daily horoscopes can also include a number of predictions, which seems to contribute to an increased likelihood of failure in the forecast. I have also witnessed some forecasts include special forecasts for single people, quite how the stars manage to sort themselves into forecasts for only single people really is quite impressive.

What do people who read horoscopes hope to gain from them? If they believe the future is already set and they are merely travelling down that path, which if you believe horoscopes you must belief the future is already set. This personally seems a very undesirable notion, if I were to belief this then why would I ponder over any decisions because I would belief I have no alternative but to make the choice I am destined by the stars to choose.

If you thought horoscopes were correct why would is the benefit of reading them, you can’t change them unless you believe that by reading the horoscopes it will help you make those decisions. This is one area perhaps horoscope believers help to justify the validity of horoscopes to themselves, a form of self prophecy. If they read they are going to ring an old friend or find love in the supermarket then it is likely they are going to look for these opportunities now the idea is placed in their heads and thus themselves contribute to the correct prediction of the horoscope.

It’s seems most fortunate to people who read horoscopes they are recipients to mostly positive futures as predicted in horoscopes and rarely is anything bad or unpleasant bad news. This is another reason for me to question the validity of horoscopes.

Horoscope writers seem to have self preservation in their mind because who would ever want to read a horoscope with negative or downbeat forecasts, probably only a few miserable people. So in order to retain their popularity they have a tendency to write positive exciting futures which people will enjoy reading, thus preserving the horoscope column.

People do not seem to concern themselves with the accuracy of the horoscope predictions. It is my experience with people who read horoscopes that they have what I describe as a fruit machine memory regarding horoscopes. A fruit machine memory is something I attribute to people you see in pubs who put in pound after pound into the fruit machine but never really remember all the times they lost or how much money they put in but only remember when they win the jackpot. I view horoscope readers in a similar vain to fruit machine addicts, they only seem to remember the times when the horoscope said something that happened but conveniently forget the daily occurrence of incorrect predictions.

People seem to take horoscopes as a mixture of simple fun and yet are willingly to give its prediction some importance if it sounds like something good. Why are certain people willing to take prompting and advice from someone who is clearly making it up? Do they garner some sort of comfort from another person predicting their future? I am yet to understand the appeal of a taking some advice from a stranger who gives you a paragraph with odd, random and mainly useless advice.

The fundamental problem I have with star signs and horoscopes is the millions of people who each have the same future. There are 12 star signs and there are roughly 6 billion people in the world. So this means 500 million people are going to have the same future or prediction each day, no matter what country or social environment they live, so people in the Antarctic will have the same future as people who live in Ghana or London.

People in prison are predicted the same future as someone is free? Age doesn’t seem to be factored into the prediction either babies and children will have the same predicted future as adults and the very old. The other question which puzzles me is why are all the horoscopes completely different in each paper, are they looking at the same stars and planets?

So next time you are reading a horoscope for a bit of fun just think how daft you are being and think maybe it’s about time I started looking up to the stars and making my own future and deciding to do something worthwhile rather than something daft like this from the guardian! I wonder what happens if I don’t refresh my wardrobe?

Sagittarius
22 Nov-21 Dec
The gap between your public role as hard-grafting trooper and your private life of tender feelings currently looks quite a chasm. Until your birthday month, however, you just have to render to Caesar his due and keep your innermost concerns and private duties to yourself. As Venus is still on your side, a charming smile and a refreshed wardrobe will carry you through most social challenges.