175. Why Is Astrology So Popular?

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).