Eropa

What is Cold Reading and how does it work?

How come fortune tellers know so much about you? How does a police officer obtain information? A person is ,cold, inside and a medium can tell a lot about you. Paranormal, or a trick? And does a medium actually know all this?

What is it?

Through Cold Reading, without knowing anything about the conversation partner, one can give the impression that one does know something about him.

How does it work?

There are different techniques to use.

First impression:

Upon entering, people already reveal a lot of information about themselves. You quickly have an ,image, based on clothing, age, hairstyle and gender. But also consider posture, accent, jewelry, a possible wedding ring and what about someone’s hands?

The Forer Effect

Something that almost all fortune tellers make use of is the tendency for people to accept vague, general statements about their own person as very typical, without realizing that that description applies to almost everyone. We call this the Forer effect or Barnum Effect. People tend to remember things selectively, namely that what is right for them, and that there are also things that are not right, is quickly forgotten. An example of this is: ,Although you exude discipline and control, you often worry and feel insecure. Sometimes you seriously doubt whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing., Almost everyone will doubt at one time or another whether the right thing was done. Or: ,You’ve had a difficult time in your life.,

Guess letter

A technique that Char often uses, for example, is guessing letters. She asks if there is anyone with an R or an S. The conversation partner will link the R or the S to people in his or her environment, deceased family or whatever. Everyone could think of something for themselves at the R. So Char doesn’t actually do anything, she mentions 1 letter, then another 1, to give a choice, and then lets the conversation partner provide the information. By giving multiple choices you have a greater chance that the conversation partner will consider one of those things. For example: ,I see something with music or an instrument? Someone who has done something with music in the past, or still does?,

Keep observing

Even as the conversation progresses, the medium continues to observe. Through a change in attitude, look or small traits in people, a medium can check whether she is on the right track.

Ambiguous questions

A very successful and devious way to obtain information is through ambiguous questions. Questions such as: , You don’t have a cat, do you?, If the answer is negative, the medium can say: See, I thought you didn’t like cats. If the answer is affirmative, the medium can say: see, I kept getting a cat, now I understand.

Safe questions

If you pay close attention, you will notice that during a reading, the medium always asks safe questions. Ambiguous questions, like the ones above, or questions that could go anywhere. The question: ,What’s with sports?, can go anywhere. ,Do you have a dog?, In case of denial it can always refer to the past, or it can be symbolic, it may be that you used to want a dog and so on.

Errors

Mediums and psychics will rarely admit to being wrong. They beat around the bush by asking more questions, they ask you to think about it again and then it will become clear.

By using a number of these techniques alternately, it seems as if the medium knows and understands everything about the conversation partner, while it is actually the conversation partner who provides all the information.