Editing Cold reading (section)

==== Warm reading ====

Warm reading is a performance tool used by professional [[mentalists]] and psychic [[confidence trick|scam artists]].<ref>Huston, Peter. (2002). ''More Scams from the Great Beyond!: How to Make Even More Money Off the Creationism, Evolution, Environmentalism, Fringe Politics, Weird Science, the Occult, and Other Strange Beliefs''. Paladin Press. {{ISBN|1-58160-354-1}}</ref> While hot reading is the use of foreknowledge and cold reading works on reacting to the subject's responses, warm reading refers to the judicious use of [[Barnum effect]] statements.

When these psychological tricks are used properly, the statements give the impression that the mentalist, or psychic scam artist, is intuitively perceptive and psychically gifted. In reality, the statements fit nearly all of humanity, regardless of gender, personal opinions, age, epoch, culture, or nationality.

[[Michael Shermer]] gives the example of jewelry worn by those in mourning. Most people in this situation will be wearing or carrying an item of jewelry with some connection to the person they have lost, but if asked directly in the context of a psychic reading whether they have such an item, the client may be shocked and assume that the reader learned the information directly from the deceased loved one.<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://chem.tufts.edu/science/Shermer/E-Skeptic/JohnEdwardExposed.html | title=Deconstructing The Dead | journal=Scientific American | volume=285 | issue=2 | pages=29 | date=2001 | access-date=19 May 2016 | author=Shermer, Michael| bibcode=2001SciAm.285b..29S | doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0801-29 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Robert Todd Carroll]] notes in ''[[The Skeptic's Dictionary]]'' that some would consider this to be cold reading.<ref>Robert Todd Carroll. [http://skepdic.com/warmreading.html "Warm Reading"]. The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 2014-02-10.</ref>