Do you want to be able to read minds or palms or handwriting? If so, then this is the article for you. To be truthful it doesn’t actually tell you how to do any of these things because they can’t be done, but it does tell you how to bluff it and convince people that you can see their innermost secrets.
The study is a demonstration of the so-called ‘Barnum effect’ (named after the famous US showman). In brief, the Barnum effect refers to a powerful tendency to believe information given to us about our personal qualities. This is used to good effect by fortune tellers, astrologers, handwriting experts, life coaches, mediums and various other contemporary shamans. If the ‘expert’ can say what people are prepared to accept, and can phrase it in such a way that it implies some intimate insight, then there is a good living to be made.
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