Western knowledge, page 2
Why Drawing Your Own Hexagram or Picking Your Own Numbers Feels More Trustworthy: The Illusion of Control
The illusion of control explains why choosing your own lottery numbers or casting your own hexagram makes a random result feel more trustworthy.
Do People Turn to Divination More When They Feel Anxious? Research on Stress, Control and Ritual
Anxiety and ritual seeking track together in observational data, but experiments that induced lost control have not replicated.
Does carrying a lucky charm make us perform better: a famous experiment and its failed replications
A 2010 study reported that lucky charms improved performance, but larger replications found no such effect. What does this say about the evidence?
When a tarot reading 'works': the cards or the sitter's belief? What the research says
Two small studies disagree on whether paranormal belief makes sitters rate a tarot reading as more accurate. The evidence stays thin and unreplicated.
Can Astrology Predict Personality? What the Double-Blind Tests Say
Do astrologers matching charts to unknown people beat chance? Double-blind tests, Carlson 1985 to Hartmann 2006, found they did not.
Where Did Astrology Begin: From Mesopotamian Celestial Omens to the Personal Chart
The oldest personal chart is a Babylonian tablet from around the 5th century BCE. This study follows astrology from Mesopotamian omens to Greece and Persia.
Do 'compatible' zodiac signs marry more durably? Swedish population data answer
Swedish population register data from 1968 to 2001 show couples with 'compatible' zodiac signs neither marry more nor divorce less.
Does the Enneagram Really Have Nine Types? What an Overview of More Than One Hundred Research Samples Says
A review of 104 research samples found the Enneagram correlates reasonably with the Big Five, yet no study confirms a nine-type factor structure.
Do Two People Born at the Same Time Share the Same Fate? What the London 'Time Twins' Study Says
The 1958 London 'time twins' study tracked over two thousand people born minutes apart and found none of the similarity Western astrology predicts for them.
Does the Barnum Effect Work on Eastern Horoscopes? A Comparative Experiment with Westerners and Chinese Participants
The Barnum effect appears in both Westerners and Chinese participants, with acceptance varying by which astrology source a description is attributed to.
The Gauquelin Mars Effect: The One Time Astrology Looked Right in the Data, and Why Researchers Still Reject It
The Gauquelin Mars Effect was astrology's strongest apparent hit in statistical data, but later independent tests failed to replicate it.
Why phrases like 'energy', 'vibration', 'the universe sends signals' sound profound: research on pseudo-profound statements
Pennycook and colleagues found that people rate vague, profound-sounding statements highly, and this acceptance links to lower analytic thinking.
Why We Avoid the Belongings of the Dead and Seek New Year's Luck: Contagious Magic in the Modern Mind
Contagious magic rests on two laws: contact transfers properties, and similarity means shared essence. Rozin's 1986 experiments show they still shape us.
Do Highly Educated People Believe Less in Fortune Telling? Intuitive Thinking, Analytical Thinking, and Paranormal Belief
Higher education goes with lower belief in fortune telling, but the correlation is modest and mostly runs through thinking style rather than through degrees.
Saying you don't believe yet still observing taboos: why 'abstaining brings good fortune' persists even among the highly educated
Many people know a taboo has no scientific basis yet still follow it. Psychology calls this acquiescence, a mechanism that reconciles intuition and reason.
Can Life Path Numbers Predict Who Succeeds? A Numerology Test on Nobel Laureates
A numerology test on 806 Nobel laureates found birth-number distribution no different from chance. Why does numerology still sound true to so many people?
Is Numerology from Pythagoras? The Origin of the Name-and-Birth-Date System in Early 20th-Century America
The numerology system that reads core numbers from names and birth dates took shape in America in the early 20th century with L. Dow Balliett.
Does Birth Month Affect Success? Yes, but Because of School Cutoff Dates, Not Star Signs
Birth month can shape school and career outcomes through the relative age effect, the age gap within a class, not through astrology or star signs.
Does the Full Moon Make People Act Differently: Crime, Birth Counts and Sleep Through the Lens of Data
Large meta-analyses find no link between moon phase and crime or birth counts. For sleep, the evidence remains contested and depends on light exposure.
Good luck, bad luck, and the hot hand: why random streaks look like they follow a rule
Psychology explains why we read random streaks as good or bad luck, and how the basketball hot hand debate pushed researchers to revise an old conclusion.
Why retaking the MBTI gives you a different type: the 16 personality types through the lens of psychometrics
The MBTI measures four real personality dimensions, but splitting people into 16 discrete types makes those near the midpoint shift type on a retest.
Why Many People Find Their Zodiac Sign Description Fits Them: The Self-Attribution Effect
Surveys once linked fire signs to extroversion, but later research ties that link to whether people already knew astrology's traits for their sign.
What to Consult After Being Dumped: Tarot, Compatibility Reading, or Nothing at All, and the Questions No Card Can Answer for You
After a breakup, tarot can help name your feelings and review the relationship, but it cannot say whether your ex will return.
Prolonged Sadness: Folk Belief Blames Bad Luck, but Feeling Down for More Than Two Weeks Is a Sign to See a Doctor, and How to Recognize It Yourself
Sadness lasting over two weeks with loss of interest, insomnia, and fatigue is a sign to seek medical help. Learn to tell everyday sadness from depression.