On May 5, Beijing time, according to foreign media reports, talking about constellations is a good ice breaking method in social networking, and constellations have a long history** We all know that astrology has no solid scientific basis, but many people still check the horoscope every day. Although telling others "I'm Taurus" can't justify your stubbornness, we still like to use constellations to describe our character.
If we know that today's constellation has produced a month's error, and there is a thirteenth constellation, how will you react? In addition, why do we always like to study the fate of constellations and use constellations to define ourselves?
What is astrology
Humans have been observing the night sky since thousands of years ago, perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps to better understand the world, or just have nothing to do. In short, we can't know the specific reason. They observed the movement of the sun, stars and planets and found that there were periodic laws. These observations not only provided explanations for seasonal and tidal phenomena, but also the ancients began to predict the future through planetary motion.
Astrology studies the movement of celestial bodies and the relationship between the movement of celestial bodies and someone's character and future behavior. The ancient Greeks believed that the sky was a huge dome covering the earth and called it the "celestial sphere". Both the sun and celestial bodies move along this path, the ecliptic. Constellations refer to the area of the sun in the sky when a person is born. They are divided into 12 areas, corresponding to 12 months of the year.
Why do people believe in constellations
If I ask which constellation you are, I believe you at least know what I'm talking about. You should also know that predicting the future according to constellations is quite lack of scientific support. Nevertheless, we still enjoy studying horoscopes, predicting personality, future interpersonal relationships, career development and so on. Why on earth is this?
Barnum effect
Barnum effect means that people will always "take their seats according to the number" after seeing some general descriptions of behavior and character. For example, when you see such a sentence: "sometimes you don't want to deal with people, just want to be alone." You think, "oh my God, that's me!"
The key word of Barnum effect is "sometimes". This general description may seem to be consistent with your character, but in fact, everyone has extroverts and introverts.
People with external control tendency and habit of self deprecation are more likely to be affected by Barnum effect. These people tend to think that their lives are controlled by external factors such as luck, fate and environment, which just provides a perfect [beautiful] for the development of astrology( ?site_id=242986&euid=&t=https://mideajiadian.jd.com/ ) "Soil".
Priming effect
Priming effect refers to the phenomenon that a previous stimulus affects the perception of subsequent stimuli. Once you think you have a characteristic, you will continue to strengthen the connection between yourself and this characteristic.
If your horoscope says you'll have a bad day, you'll be dragged into this lame prophecy from the moment you leave your key at home. Every time you encounter a little inconvenience, you will feel that the prophecy has been confirmed.
Confirmation error
Here we can see how easily we are deceived in the face of such "prophecies". But do we accept all information exactly the same? Not exactly.
According to the theory of confirmation bias, people are more likely to accept predictions consistent with their own ideas. If you think you are an honest person, you will be more inclined to agree with the second prediction of "you are a calm person" and "you appreciate the quality of honesty", because it confirms your view of yourself.
Body language
This has little to do with your cognitive errors, but more to do with your body language. Or more specifically, it has to do with astrologers' interpretation of your body language.
Astrologers will carefully observe the guests' facial expressions and body language when predicting. These nonverbal responses can help them judge whether the guest is satisfied with the prediction, and then give different guidance accordingly.
The 13th constellation and new planets
Even if we can accept the view between planetary motion and human life, there is another interesting thing to note: astrology was invented long before humans found new planets. Today, the farthest planet available to astrologers is only Saturn.
In addition, the 13th constellation is rarely considered. The earth wobbles slowly as it rotates around its axis, so the relative position between the constellation and the earth has now deviated for nearly a month.
According to the latest calculation, the number of constellations should be increased to 13. The extra one is Ophiuchus, but you almost never see it in the horoscope. Although there are some differences between astronomy and astrology, Ophiuchus may also be deliberately ignored.
At least we now know why we are immersed in the joy of studying the horoscope. After all, it's not easy to fight your cognitive errors. (leaves)