Skip to content

Explore the reason why people deeply believe in occultism practice

Lichan Wang

Arts, Culture and Language February 26, 2025 DOI: 10.61173/2rzb4p90 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Key points Argues that belief in tarot can be explained by Jung's collective unconscious theory or by the Barnum effect, with social influences and personality also playing roles.

Abstract

This paper analyzes why people are willing to believe occultism practice such as tarot from a psychological perspective. From four different angles, this work not only analyzes the principle behind the possible operation of tarot cards, but also explores human psychology of tarot cards. The final conclusions can be divided into different schools. According to Jung’s collective unconscious theory, tarot cards are a tool for projecting people’s subconscious minds, so they can be accurate. From a more scientifically dialectic point of view, people would believe that tarot is due to the Barnum effect, which achieves the illusion of accuracy by substituting their own real experiences with vague descriptions. At the same time, social influences and people’s own personalities also affect the degree to which different people believe in tarot.