For thousands of years, people have come up with ways to check character traits, such as the Chinese and western zodiacs. But I wonder how effective these methods are.
Many people believe in horoscopes, and follow them closely in newspapers every day. The writers of these life predictions assume people of the same zodiac sign share identical personality traits. But surely this is impossible.
In 19th-century Europe, people's characters were determined by the shapes and sizes of their skulls and their facial features. It was believed these methods could help identify criminals, but the practice mislabelled innocent people.
People should realise that the only way to know what someone's like is to talk to them and get to know them. Trusting generalised zodiac predictions is nearly as foolish as assuming someone is a criminal just because their face is unsymmetrical.
Janice Kwong Sze-hor
From the Editor