#bertram forer

It’s horseshit, and no.

Not only can picture cards not have any fore-knowledge of the world around them, but their vague, non-specific messages and the fact their “meaning” has to be interpreted renders them completely subjective. You see what you want to see. Or worse, the tarot reader tells you what you or they want you to believe. Exactly the same as horoscopes or any other fortune-telling scam.

Which is to say, it’s not a completely worthless practice, because it’s effectively a crude psychological test that can give an insight into the mind of the reader, the one doing the “interpreting” of the random, meaningless pictures - what they think, what they want, how they view themselves or others, their motivations.

By the way, this effect has been studied:

http://skepdic.com/forer.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_validation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_effect

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/forer-effect.htm

https://curiosity.com/topics/the-barnum-effect-is-why-this-article-knows-exactly-what-kind-of-person-you-are-curiosity/

https://web.randi.org/swift/did-a-psychic-see-my-future-no-it-wasnt-in-the-cards

If it was “true,” someone would have picked up one of the many, many prizes. Belief in them is as much an unfalsifiable “faith”-based belief as any religious idea. Like prayers to “god”, they’re never “wrong”, they’re just telling you something else, or something that will make sense later, or some other excuse to sustain the illusion. How would we detect that tarot isn’t a valid mechanism for figuring out the world around us? Anything at all?

Just for fun:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2124543/

F is for Bertram Forer

Round 20 of ABC Wednesday is billed as The Farewell Tour so this may be my last trip through the alphabet of the famous, the infamous and the forgotten. Bertram Forer was an American psychologist who is remembered for describing the technique for self-deception familiar to psychics, astrologers and even popular business personality tests. Forer was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1914…

You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times, you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.

How likely are you to endorse this as an accurate description? 

- P.T. Barnum and You.