Can horoscopes make people feel better?

Yes! But it has nothing to do with the horoscopes being right. Horoscopes make people feel better because of the psychological effect known as the placebo effect. The placebo effect is when the belief in a useless method actually makes a person feel better. It is the belief itself, and not the method, that causes the improvement. The placebo effect has been scientifically verified. If you give pills to ten sick patients containing only water, but tell them it is a powerful new drug that will help them, and then have ten sick patients not take the pills, then over time the patients taking pills will show better health. Because of the placebo effect, a new drug must not just be proven to make patients feel better. It must be proven to perform better than a placebo.

In accurate medical experiments, the control group is not a collection of untreated patients. Rather, the control group is a collection of patients receiving a placebo. The placebo effect is the mechanism at work with astrology. Many people believe in astrology. When they read their horoscope and follow its advice, they feel better. But it is the belief itself and not the astrology that is making them feel better. Many pseudo-scientific treatments – from crystal healing to homeopathy – help people through the placebo effect. Believing in a treatment that does not actually do anything may help, but believing in a treatment that does is even better. Sticking to scientifically proven treatments gives you the benefit of the belief and the benefit of the treatment’s action. For instance, instead of reading your horoscope each morning, go for a walk. Exercise is proven to be good for body and mind, and your belief in its effect will also help you.