palm reading

Palm reading is, of course, a load of nonsense based around cold reading, but regardless I felt this recent survey from goo Ranking looking at what lines people don’t want to have on their palms was worth translating just for the names of some of the lines that I suspect might have been made up just for the sake of the survey…

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of December 2009 1,077 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 8.7% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 27.0% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.9% in their fifties, and 9.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I find it quite amusing that the bottom of the list is the pervy line, perhaps there ought to be a follow-up survey on what lines people wish they had. The original Japanese article describes exactly where each line can be found should you really wish to check your own hand.

The photo to the right is used with kind permission from Lee at Tokyo Times. It shows a street palm reader – in the evenings around most major stations you can usually find one or two of them plying their trade. Please click through to the original posting to see the image full size.
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