Exploring Reader Bias

Sentient

Hi nisaba, sorry to disappoint!

Biases come in all kinds. Readers can have biases reading for other people, and of course they can have biases with the cards themselves. I would be interested in that topic if you wanted to start a thread.

Card-wise, the two that occur to me are the Hierophant and the Emperor. Because so many people have a negative impression of organized religion, il Papa gets a bad rap. And many people have had bad experiences with authority figures, so the Emperor too has an image problem.

As these aspects are such a small part of what these cards represent, it's a real shame that they seem to dominate many people's thinking.
 

gregory

There's nothing wrong with carrying this on.

There is indeed the bias about individual cards. The terror people feel when they pull death and 10 Swords. (I pulled 10 Swords for a happy marriage. In context it fit and the sitter totally got it when I told her what I saw.) The "wish" card which is NOT showing that you will get everything you want. The lovers - which is NOT showing that you will get the happy ever after. It MIGHT - but it usually doesn't.

And the personal bias (when reading for yourself) that means you see what you want to see, no matter how many other readers looking at your cards see the opposite. And the one where the cards saying it will all be wonderful means you can now sit back and do nothing. That's not how it works !

And there is also that ghastly bias we all feel (and which means I will not read for friends ;)) when - for instance - you KNOW his wife is having an affair and that he doesn't know; he asks a relationship question and the cards look fine - and you are aching to warn him, or the one where she asks about her wedding and you loathe her intended and think it will be a disaster.
 

nisaba

And there is also that ghastly bias we all feel (and which means I will not read for friends ;)) when - for instance - you KNOW his wife is having an affair and that he doesn't know; he asks a relationship question and the cards look fine - and you are aching to warn him,

I personally would read the cards as they stand. Then, outside the reading and making clear I didn't get it from the cards, advise him to really *talk* to her.

or the one where she asks about her wedding and you loathe her intended and think it will be a disaster.

Again, I'd read the cards as they stand. And wouldn't say anything outside the reading. Human chemistry being what it is, For example, I already loathe and detest the partner of my bestest-friend, and he reduces her to tears on a regular basis (which is a large part of the loathing - he is so calculating about it), but he is HER choice. My opinion is my own, and I have no right to further blight her relationship by voicing it.
 

gregory

Yes yes - but most of us - in all honestly - will start to see things in the cards that match our views.... You can see that all the time here in YR :D
 

Barleywine

To be human is to have biases (or preferences); it's how we get on with the world from the day we're first able to make our own choices. Keeping them in proper perspective in any given context is the trick. I'm of the "just read the cards as they stand" school of thought, but it doesn't mean I can't choose just the right words to convey the meaning without bluntly hammering the point home. I often think of the quote from the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz" (as she decides to kill Dorothy to get the ruby slippers :)):

"These things must be done delicately, or you hurt the spell."
 

Arania

I think the example with the client in a troubled relationship has more to do with them wanting to hear something positive and the reader not wanting to be so negative and finite when their client wants to do some work (which is always good). Depending on the rest of the cards, we will likely all notice if a relationship is doomed, but if and how to break it to the client is another matter.

I really don't want a situation myself where someone is going around telling people that I have told them to break it off "because the cards say so" when in fact the cards only show what's there. Too many people don't quite get the difference.
 

Sentient

These things must be done delicately, or you hurt the spell.

There's a surprising amount of life-wisdom in that movie, such that I think people will still enjoy watching it 100 years from now: "A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others."

Auntie Em: Help us out today and find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble!
Dorothy: A place where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be.

Professor Marvel never guesses, he knows!