Palmistry

A fortune-teller conducting a palm reading, with lines and mounts marked out on the person's left palm
Gold stamped front cover of The Psychonomy of the Hand

Palmistry is the pseudoscientific practice of fortune-telling through the study of the palm. Also known as palm reading, chiromancy, chirology or cheirology, the practice is found all over the world, with numerous cultural variations. Those who practice palmistry are generally called palmists, hand readers, hand analysts, or chirologists.

There are many—and often conflicting—interpretations of various lines and palmar features across various teachings of palmistry. Palmistry is widely viewed as a pseudoscience due to various contradictions between different interpretations and the lack of evidence for palmistry's predictions.[1][2]

  1. ^ Park, Michael Alan (1986). "Palmistry or HandJive?". In Frazier, Kendrick (ed.). Science Confronts the Paranormal. Prometheus. pp. 198–201. ISBN 978-1-61592-619-0.
  2. ^ Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas; Furnham, Adrian (2010). The Psychology of Personnel Selection. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-521-86829-7. A more popular pseudoscience is chiromancy (or palmistry), the art of characterisation and foretelling the future through the study of the palm.