Upon birth, we are designated a horoscope dependent on which month we were born in. This horoscope can determine a multitude of things about your life. Horoscopes predict your health, income, and even your love life.

Although it may seem utterly ridiculous that something as irrelevant as date of birth can determine so many things about you, many people believe it. Every day, people look in the zodiac section of the newspaper to see how their day is going to unfold, believing everything it says.

Nikhil Sethisuwan stated “My zodiac sign is Capricorn, I never pay much attention to the meaning of zodiac signs although I see a lot of things on the media about horoscopes. To me personally [it is] just another way to show [I am] born in December, It [does not] have any spiritual level meaning to me.”

The reason why so many people believe something so illogical is because of Confirmation Bias. Confirmation Bias is the tendency to overvalue evidence that supports one’s beliefs and to undervalue anything that goes against said beliefs.

What happens in most cases is that the predictions the horoscopes make are highly vague and can be applied to most situations. For example, the horoscope may predict that you will have a normal day today, and you will be healthy.

As most people have normal days and do not get injured, this prediction holds true for most people. Upon this prediction coming true, the person’s trust in these predictions increases exponentially. Further predictions that come true only increase the person’s conviction in these ideas.

Ben Siraphob shared “I think [it is] utter ********. Got fired? Blame your horoscope. Got an A+? The stars were in your favour. I think that horoscopes make society worse because they give people something to cling onto, to praise or to blame. People need to be able to blame or praise themselves, not some stranger’s vague predictions.”

On the other hand, when the prediction does not hold true, the person will tend to ignore and undervalue it. Through this cycle, the amount of people who believe                                                                            in horoscopes have increased dramatically.      

In conclusion, through Confirmation Bias, a vast amount of people have started to believe in Horoscopes. No matter how absurd the concept of predicting one’s future using their date of birth may be, people still believe in horoscopes because of Confirmation Bias.

Adarsh Abbagani