Youth talk

I used to enjoy reading my horoscope in our daily newspaper. Even now, I cannot resist a quick go-over every time I see my predictions for the day or month. I understand that there’s no legitimacy to it, but it’s all in good fun. 

Being a former fan, I kind of understand the appeal of astrology: a lot of the times, horoscope predictions are quite positive, usually the most positive item in a publication!

Even if events don’t play out the way they are described, it can be really reassuring to read hopeful outcomes for the events in your life, or get a heads-up on what could go wrong.

Also, some people like to use their zodiac sign to gauge their compatibility with other star signs, especially in the dating realm. 

Astrology has been around for some time but a more recent phenomenon, popular in both Japan and South Korea, is the categorisation of personality traits according to blood type. Medical findings have completely debunked this but I was surprised to see just how spot on the character traits for blood group A, my blood type, fit my personality!

To make sure I wasn’t just experiencing the psychological Barnum effect, where individuals believe general descriptions to be accurate descriptions that relate to them, I enlisted the opinion of a friend who confirmed that I did share some of those type A qualities.

Editor’s note: Having just read this article I had to go check mine out. I like it: ‘easygoing with leadership ability’. You can’t argue with the stars when they’re written in blood!