Are you on a diet? You better not read the horoscope

These days you can read horoscopes for the new year everywhere, in the newspapers and on the web. Beware though: if you are on a diet you better avoid consulting the stars to know how 2014 will be. In case of negative responses, in fact, you will end up giving into temptation more easily.

It has long been thought that reading your star sign can improve mood and encourage people to undertake selfless activities. However, scientists at the University of South Carolina and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, found the opposite effect.
Their findings, published in the Journal of Consumer Research have revealed that people who read their horoscope everyday are found to "exhibit impulsive or indulgent behaviour when their zodiac was negative." It is because believers are convinced they cannot change their fate so get tempted to drop their plans, while people who don't set any store by their stars carry on as normal.

In the study, a number of participants were presented with unfavourable star sign readings and asked to choose between either going to a party or cleaning their home.
Participants who selected going to a party were seen as having made an indulgent decision and those who chose to clean their home were categorised as having made a virtuous one.
The study found that those who had read a negative horoscope before making their choice were more likely to choose going to the party over the more virtuous activity.
Researchers had expected participants to chose a more virtuous action to prevent the unfavourable outcome presented in their horoscope.

"Human nature drives us to believe in our own fate," said the authors of the study, Hyeongmin Kim, Katina Kulow and Thomas Kramer. "Conventional wisdom might suggest that for people who believe they can change their fate, an unfavourable horoscope should result in an attempt to improve their fate... Our results [however] showed that reading an unfavourable horoscope actually has the opposite effect on a person." The researchers found that those who believe they have a fixed fate showed little change in their decision making and instead remained focused on their day ahead.

Researchers also warn of the risk that advertisers could take advantage of our weakness; they should promote indulgences like chocolate and ice cream on horoscope pages with slogans like 'life is what you make of it!'

So if the horoscope is your favourite page in the newspaper, then remind the Zodiac is more than just a harmless pastime: consider turning the page quickly and focus on solving quizzes. It seems that doing puzzles and quizzes burns an average of 90 calories every hour!

Sources: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/