Editing Fortune-telling (section)

==Critical analysis==
[[File:Josephine and the Fortune-Teller 1837 David Wilkie.jpg|thumb|''[[Josephine and the Fortune-Teller]]'' by [[David Wilkie (artist)|David Wilkie]], 1837]]
Fortune telling is easily dismissed by critics as [[magical thinking]] and [[superstition]].<ref>Pronko, Nicholas Henry. (1969). ''Panorama of Psychology''. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. p. 18</ref><ref>Miller, Gale. (1978). ''Odd Jobs: The World of Deviant Work''. Prentice-Hall. pp. 66–68</ref><ref>Regal, Brian. (2009). ''Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia''. Greenwood. p. 55. {{ISBN|978-0-313-35507-3}}</ref>

Skeptic [[Bergen Evans]] suggested that fortune telling is the result of a "naïve selection of something that have happened from a mass of things that haven't, the clever interpretation of ambiguities, or a brazen announcement of the inevitable."<ref>[[Bergen Evans|Evans, Bergen]]. (1955). ''The Spoor of Spooks: And Other Nonsense''. Purnell. p. 16</ref> Other skeptics claim that fortune telling is nothing more than [[cold reading]].<ref>Cogan, Robert. (1998). ''Critical Thinking: Step by Step''. University Press of America. p. 212. {{ISBN|0-7618-1067-6}}</ref>

A large amount of [[fortune telling fraud|fraud]] has been proven in the practice of fortune telling.<ref>Steiner, Robert A. (1996). ''Fortunetelling''. In [[Gordon Stein]]. ''The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal''. Prometheus Books. pp. 281–290. {{ISBN|1-57392-021-5}}</ref>

Fortune telling and how it works raises many critical questions. For example, fortune-telling occurs through various methods such as psychic readings and tarot cards. Similarly, these methods are largely based on random phenomena. For example, astrologers believe that the movement of stars in the sky can have implications on one's life.<ref>Thagard, Paul R. (1978). ''Why astrology is a pseudoscience'' in ''The Philosophy of Science Association'', 1978 Volume 1, pp. 223–234.</ref> In the case of tarot cards, people believe that images displayed on the cards have significant meanings on their lives. However, there is a lack of evidence to support why such things, such as the stars, would have any implications on our lives.

Additionally, fortune-telling readings and predictions made by horoscopes, for example, are often general enough to apply to anyone. In cold reading, for example, readers often begin by stating general descriptions and continuing to make specifics based on the reactions they receive from the person whose life they are predicting.<ref name="Dutton, D.L. 1988 pp. 326-332">Dutton, D.L. (1988). ''The Cold Reading Technique'' in ''Experientia'', Volume 44, pp. 326–332</ref> The tendency for people to deem general descriptions as being representative to themselves has been termed the [[Barnum effect]] and has been studied by psychologists for many years.<ref name="Dutton, D.L. 1988 pp. 326-332"/>

Nonetheless, even with a lack of evidence supporting the various methods of fortune-telling and the many frauds that have occurred by psychic readers, amongst others, fortune-telling continues to become popular around the world. There are many reasons for the appealing nature of fortune-telling such as that people often experience stress when there is uncertainty and thus seek to gain deeper insight into their lives.