Warm reading

From RationalWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
The wonderful world of

Psychics

Icon psychic.svg
Strange powers
Persons of interest

Warm reading is a method used by psychics, spiritualists, mediums and other charlatans which falls between cold reading and hot reading. Where a "cold" reading means they go in with no information, and a "hot" reading means they go in with information from other sources, a "warm" reading means they go in with a vague idea of where to aim for and use cold reading techniques to expand on it. Instead of fishing for a response from their "victim" they utilize known techniques of psychology and statistics which apply to nearly everyone, or at least the majority of people.

[edit] Example

For example, most people in the western world will have a box with old photographs, or, if grieving for a loved one, will have kept a memento which belonged to the deceased such as a watch or piece of jewelry. Additionally, common causes of death such as stroke, heart attack, cancer, falls, or car-crashes often affect or damage the head or chest as these are where most vital organs are situated, so the reader will suggest this area of the body for how somebody died.

Similarly, people will have both introverted and extroverted sides to their nature which the reader will amazingly identify as two different aspects of their personality.

At some time in their lives, most people will have dabbled with an artistic, musical, or literary endeavour, but the reader will make this seem like a special insight. This is an example of style over substance.

[edit] See also

Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support