How Psychologists Measure Spiritual Belief: The Paranormal Belief Scale and Surveys Since 1936
Psychologists use the Paranormal Belief Scale by Tobacyk and Milford, revised in 2004, with 26 items across seven subscales.
Results for "psychology"
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.
How MBTI and Big Five differ, and why psychology uses Big Five
MBTI and Big Five measure nearly the same four personality dimensions, but MBTI splits people into 16 discrete groups while Big Five keeps continuous scores.
Why young people seek fortune tellers: pressure, uncertainty and the psychology of the Barnum effect
Young people turn to fortune telling, tarot or astrology amid study and work pressure and uncertainty about the future, not from full belief in the occult.
What Science Says About Face Reading: From 19th-Century Criminal Physiognomy to Modern Research
How does science view face reading? From 19th-century criminal anthropology to modern psychology, plus the misconceptions to avoid.
What Does MBTI Borrow from Carl Jung, and Where Does It Differ?
MBTI borrows Jung's two attitudes and four functions, adds the J/P axis and sixteen types. How does psychology rate its reliability and validity?
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.
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.
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.
Why young people turn to Tarot after a relationship crisis: what they are really looking for is an answer or a place to put their questions
After a relationship crisis, young people often turn to Tarot not just for a prediction, but for a safe place to ask questions and name what they feel.
Enneagram and the Nine Personality Types: What This Diagram Says, and How It Differs from MBTI
The Enneagram maps nine personality types and their Greek roots. See how its focus on inner motivation and maturity levels differs from MBTI.
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.
Using Tarot for Healing or for Avoidance: Five Signs You Are Dependent on a Card
Tarot can soothe emotions, but it can also become a dependency. Learn five warning signs and how to reclaim your own decision-making power.
How Human Design, MBTI and Numerology Differ, and Why They Are Often Sold as a Bundle
Human Design, MBTI and numerology differ in origin and method, yet they are often bundled because all three promise to answer the same question: who am I?
Tarot Cannot Replace Psychotherapy: The Boundary Between a Hobby and a Problem That Needs a Professional, Plus Signs You Should See a Doctor
Tarot is a self-reflection tool, not psychotherapy. This analysis covers the safe boundary, signs of misuse, and when to see a mental health professional.
The Placebo Effect: Why Feeling Lighter After a Ceremony Is Real, Even When the Ritual Changes Nothing About the Condition
The placebo effect explains why feeling lighter after a ritual can be real, though it changes only subjective experience, not the disease itself.
Illusory correlation: why two events happening close together make the brain think one causes the other
Illusory correlation is the brain seeing a link between two events when none exists, because rare and striking events grab attention and stick in memory.
Cold reading: The technique that makes a vague statement sound like it hits your private life
Cold reading uses body language, double-edged statements and the Barnum effect to make vague claims feel like an accurate reading of your private life.
MBTI INTP Personality Type (The Thinker): Traits, Strengths, and Career Paths
INTP (The Thinker) in MBTI: logical, intuitive and flexible traits, plus strengths, weaknesses and suitable career paths.
Introverted Feeling (Fi) in MBTI: Meaning and Manifestations
Introverted Feeling (Fi) in MBTI explained: its definition as an inner value system and how it shapes authentic decisions.
Confirmation Bias: Why We Remember the Fortuneteller's Hits and Forget Every Miss
Confirmation bias explains why we remember a fortune teller's hits and forget the misses, plus its mechanisms and self checks.
Fortune tellers on social media: signs that someone is selling fear rather than sharing knowledge
Fortune telling on social media often exploits existing anxieties rather than supernatural ability. Spot vague statements, cold reading and upselling.
Extraverted Feeling (Fe) Cognitive Function in MBTI: Meaning and Manifestations
Extraverted Feeling (Fe) in MBTI decides through collective emotions and group harmony. See how it works and how it shows up across the types.
What to Do After a Breakup: Five Stages of Grief, What to Do in the First Week, and How to Close a Relationship
A guide to breakup grief: the emotional stages, what to do in the first week, handling keepsakes, and when to see a therapist.
Enneagram Type 2: The Helper, characteristics, strengths, and areas to watch
Deep dive into Enneagram Type 2 (The Helper): core motivations, strengths, hidden shadows, and tailored growth advice for this personality type.
MBTI INFP Personality Type (The Mediator) - Traits, Strengths, and Career Paths
INFP (The Mediator) is one of the 16 MBTI types, known for idealism, empathy and intuition. See traits, strengths, weaknesses and fitting careers.
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.
Why 'believe it if it fits, argue if it doesn't' fortune-telling clips spread so fast online: the mechanism that makes a vague reading sound personal
Why vague fortune-telling clips spread online: the Barnum effect, confirmation bias, the need for control, and algorithms that favour controversial content.
ESTJ MBTI Personality Type (The Executive) - Traits, Strengths, and Career Directions
ESTJ (The Executive) MBTI type: its traits, strengths, weaknesses and suitable career paths, plus the origins of the type and a scientific view.
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.
ISTJ Personality Type (The Inspector) - Traits, Strengths, and Career Paths
ISTJ (The Inspector) in MBTI: origins, identifying traits, strengths, weaknesses, and suitable career paths, plus an objective scientific view.
Why superstition never disappears: from Skinner's pigeon experiment to an evolutionary model
Superstition survives because our learning machinery produces it: chance coincidences become rituals, and false beliefs may cost less than missed causes.
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.
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?
Do Children Born in an 'Auspicious' Year Study Better? When Parents' Beliefs Make the Prediction Come True
Studies in mainland China, Taiwan, Hồng Kông and Asian-American communities find Dragon-year children score slightly higher.
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 Marrying on a 'Lucky' Day Make a Marriage Last: Dutch Marriage Data and Low-Transaction Days in Singapore
Dutch research links weddings on special dates to an 18 to 36 percent higher divorce risk, mostly from couples' traits, not the date.
Hexagram Mountain over Water (Meng) in the I Ching: The Origin and Meaning of Innocence
Hexagram 4 of the I Ching, Mountain over Water, comes from Kan and Gen and speaks of innocence, enlightenment, and acting amid immaturity.
The Forer Experiment: A Whole Class Received the Same Personality Description and Everyone Felt It Was Accurate, Plus How to Test It Yourself in Ten Minutes
In his 1949 paper, Bertram Forer reports giving 39 students one identical personality sketch from an astrology book; the class still rated it accurate.
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.
Are Psychics Real? How Anomalistic Psychology Explains the "Sixth Sense" Experience
Controlled tests have not shown psychic ability. Anomalistic psychology links "sixth sense" experiences to misattribution and subjective validation.
Is Online Tarot Reliable and Worth Using? A View from History, Psychology, and Survey Data
Online Tarot's reliability examined through Tarot history, psychological evidence on perceived accuracy, and Pew 2025 survey data on who uses it and why.
Does Learning Astrology Make People More Certain About Themselves? Astrology as Self-Affirmation in Times of Crisis
Astrology students in a small 1998 study grew more certain about themselves, while psychology and German students did not.
Unrequited Love: Why It Is So Hard to Let Go, What Tarot and Numerology Are Used to Ask, and the Signs It Is Time to Stop
Unrequited love persists because the brain rewards fragile hope. Here is the psychology, what tarot and numerology can help you ask, and when to stop.
Is AI Tarot Reading Accurate and How Does It Differ from a Human Reader? A Scientific and Practical View
Is AI Tarot reading accurate, and how does it differ from a human reader? An analysis based on 2025 psychology research on how accurate Tarot spreads feel.
Is 40 Too Late to Look for Love? A Tử Vi and Psychological Perspective
Is 40 too late to look for love? Tử Vi reads the Phu Thê palace and Cô Quả stars, psychology looks at marriage age. No single age is absolutely too late.
What Is MBTI? An Overview of the 16 Personality Types and How to Find Yours
What is MBTI? An overview of the 16 personality types, the eight cognitive functions, and how to identify your own type. Reference content only.
Why Humans See Patterns Where None Exist: From Faces in Clouds to Repeating Numbers in Life
Apophenia explains why the brain sees faces in clouds, repeating numbers and patterns in random data, plus where the line to delusion lies.
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.