The Forer effect

Is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, and some types of personality tests.

A related and more generic phenomenon effect is that of subjective validation. Subjective validation occurs when two unrelated or even random events are perceived to be related because a belief, expectancy, or hypothesis demands a relationship. Thus people seek a correspondence between their perception of their personality and the contents of a horoscope.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect


http://pvrguymale.blogspot.com/2010/09/if-you-can-make-reader-believe-anything.html

http://pvrguymale.blogspot.com/2010/07/true-believer-syndrome.html

http://pvrguymale.blogspot.com/2010/01/cognitive-dissonance.html