Why do people believe in horoscopes?

Question

Is it a psychological phenomenon rooted in our civilization's past or a light into our Destiny?

What drives people to believe something as mystical, with such passion?

Answer 1

Pure nonsense. Some people consider themselves as experts in every aspect of life. Because they lack the knowledge of Astronomy, they prefer to believe in horoscopes. I think it is not as bad as to give medical advice (paizo to giatro) without being a doctor. Some of them sugest medicines (oi baries periptoseis) and generally have solutions for almost everything.

The answer should have been posted in …religion because… horoscope’s funs are fanatic:)

Answer 2

Psychological phenomenon, probably. It is easier to live life if you have some patterns to follow, for example I am a Scorpio, and you know that you shouldn't mess with me :)

People feel more secure if they get some insight in future obstacles or success, so they can be prepared.

I don't believe in horoscope because I just can't put all the people I know (including myself) in 10 or how many sign groups are there.

Answer 3

Is the people's human nature and need to believe in the time-old witchdoctor, in a not so modern version.

Answer 4

Don't question...just believe...

Answer 5

Though its clearly more diluted today, archaic proto-astronomers sat around all-night fires, watching patterns in the night sky, and observed how they changed!

From these observations, stories formed, and celestial events being predictably, repeating movements of the sky, led to the development of an oral tradition, corresponding with the human events on the earth!

Before electricity and television, early Hunter/Gatherers needed to have a night-watch on duty, in case predatory animals entered the campsite, so this interest of sky-watching, connects modern humans deeply, with their ancient past.

Answer 6

You ask "What drives people to believe something as mystical, with such passion?" Well, it's only the mystical that we love with a passion, isn't it? Passion usually ends when things or ideas  are resolved and start their material, tangible lives. All the seekers on the quest to the unknown are endowed with passion; they feed on it: explorers, scientists, poets, astronauts, all of them. That's what horoscope is to the ordinary person. Something not quite explained and yet so intriguing. Something providing them with a daily dose of attention needed to feed their egos. Somebody has actually taken them into account and is addressing them, somebody is analysing their past, predicting their future - somebody is dealing with them! And complimenting them with all those you're-unique-and-special adjectives. And they want to believe it, because it's comforting and it sounds good. Plus you can always blame it on the stars for all the bad things that happen to you: saying 'it just wasn't meant to be.'

Answer 7

supersticion,luck,fortune,or money

Answer 8

It's because they were never given a proper education that would allow them to see the complete foolishness of such a practice. I blame it on inadequate education in public schools.

You will meet someone important today

Or, you will have trouble with your relationships today...

That happens everyday to me. They make generalized statements and people can't recognize them as designed to not fail because they don't want to see the scam. Maybe it helps give them confidence when they walk out their front door each day, a false sense of security, maybe they feel like they know what to expect now that the fat lady at the newspaper place made up some stuff for them to read.

Answer 9

The horoscopes are vague, general and positive. If you want to believe in them you'll be able to find enough events in your life to "prove" the horoscopes are real.

James Randi collects a class's birth dates and produces horoscopes for the students. They usually rate the results as 60-80% accurate. He then has them exchange the papers. What he's done is to give the same horoscope to the entire class!

Answer 10

People WANT something to believe in when they have lost belief in themselves. Once you've lost that self-trust, you'll look anywhere. Isn't that what religion's all about?

Answer 11

dude,i thought they were bull,if you actually look at them the right way they make sence for what happend on that day

ITS REAL MAN

Answer 12

Boy, this is a heavy question. "Why do people believe..."?

I guess that since people 4,000 years ago were fascinated by the stars all sorts of thinking developed, most of it erroneous but be that as it may, nevertheless, popular.

Some smart folks decided that the stars could, if we only understood them, could tell us about ourselves and even the...future.

They were wrong but this didn't seem to hamper them very much.

My position on prehistoric and early historic religion was that it was also an attempt to...explain things about which many had questions. I think that religion, therefore, had great appeal since most of us like to be told what's going on rather than to have to...think things through for ourselves.

Religion failed as a science and so did astrology but even until the last 300 years some very smart people embraced astrology and it almost reached the status of science.

Astrology can be and is, given credit for being the stepping off point for the actual science of Astronomy.

But to answer your question directly: I guess being told what to think is so much easier than making the effort to try to understand a thig or observation and explain it to ourselves; we just opt for the easy way out.

People like to believe or, in other words, accept a position without evidence and the attempt to understand evidence.

Believing is...easy. Thinking about each question we have is...difficult and requires sufficient knowledge for understanding.

Believing = easy.   Thinking = hard.