Canals on Mars, which spawned books about Martian residents, the Face on Mars, and N-rays are other examples of mistaken beliefs, as was the discovery of the nonexistent planet Vulcan. The Central Intelligence Agency hired Hyman and a parapsychologist to evaluate psychics working for the government. Hyman told the workshop attendees that not only were previous studies flawed, but their psychic accuracy was about 15 percent. The problem was that no one could determine which 15 percent was right. He also cautioned us to be very gentle in disabusing those who believe such exercises are paranormal.
Cold readings work in the sense that the client is typically satisfied with the results . . .
A related error is the assumption that the meaning of the reading is contained in the words of the reader. Instead, subjects create their own inferences from proposed generalities. The more personal information the client supplies, such as day, month, year of birth, the more credence he or she gives to the reader's accuracy and the greater the belief that the reader is psychic. Andrus demonstrated how mystified we can be by visual cues. Among his many amazing creations that he encouraged us to play with were the Nutty Nuts and Bewildering Blocks.