Don’t spend money on fortune‑telling, tarot, or astrology to make decisions

There is no monetary cost. The real challenge is giving up this easy shortcut for decision‑making and having to think for yourself from now on.

A classic classroom experiment: the "personal analysis" students received after completing a personality test was actually identical for everyone, yet most believed it to be highly accurate. The author's conclusion is that "being accepted by the subject or the analyst does not prove the interpretation is correct." 39 students rated the accuracy of this analysis on a scale from 0 to 5, with 34 people giving it a score of 4 or 5, resulting in an average of approximately 4.26 based on the distribution in the table. This explains why fortune-telling always seems accurate; this phenomenon is known as the Barnum Effect. Astrology has also undergone double-blind testing, the results of which were published in Nature. Astrologers were required to pick the one personality test result out of three that matched the birth chart. They correctly identified 40 out of 116 cases, whereas they could have identified 38.5 cases by pure guesswork, and the astrologers had previously predicted they would correctly identify 58.5 cases. Official case: The Xixian Procuratorate in Henan reported a network fortune-telling fraud group that first lured people in with free palm readings, then charged "incense money" and "offering packages" of up to 3888 yuan. There were more than 50 victims, and more than 200 ten thousand yuan in stolen funds were recovered; the ringleader was sentenced to eleven years in prison and fined 10 ten thousand yuan.

Forer BR (1949). The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of gullibility. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 44(1):118-123（表 1 评分分布：2 分 1 人、3 分 4 人、4 分 18 人、5 分 16 人，N=39）. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0059240；Carlson S (1985). A double-blind test of astrology. Nature 318:419-425（表 2：首选 116 份，挑中 40 份，随机期望 38.5，占星师预计 58.5；「The data are consistent with chance, inconsistent with astrological hypothesis」）. https://doi.org/10.1038/318419a0，第二作者主页全文 https://muller.lbl.gov/papers/Astrology-Carlson.pdf；最高人民检察院 (2026). 河南息县：历经三年持续追踪打掉一批网络算命诈骗团伙. https://www.spp.gov.cn/zdgz/202607/t20260728_732935.shtml

Both of these are just individual studies. The original paper by Forer does not directly state the average score; 4.26 was calculated based on the distribution of 1 as presented in the original text. This only states that 'it is inaccurate at prediction' and does not evaluate any belief. While spending a few dozen yuan for entertainment is fine, using it to decide on resignation, marriage, or investment is where the real financial loss lies.