Customers are desperate for someone to talk to

Question: Are psychics real?
Position‹2 of 2: No, psychics are not real
Argument‹2 of 4›: Customers are desperate for someone to talk to

Sometimes, people are so desperate to speak to someone that they will believe anything.

The argument

It is human nature to want somebody to confide in, to give our problems to and receive answers. The scale of that need is not in dispute: in 2018, it was reported that four out of every ten individuals in the United States had seen some form of therapist at some point in their life. The concept of going to a psychic isn't much different — you delve into your problems and receive some form of help or guidance in return. Set beside one another, the two transactions have the same shape, and the argument's point is that the shape is what customers are actually buying. Psychics are not so much magical, "sixth sense" possessing individuals as they are empathetic and guiding. What separates the two is what the customer is asked to do. People want answers fast. They don't necessarily want to work for them, as one often must with a therapist, where the answers are arrived at slowly and largely by the person seeking them. A psychic is a quick-fix solution, with the answers presented right then and there — which explains both the appeal and the format, since a service built on delivering conclusions has no reason to develop the slower methods. That explanation accounts for the industry without requiring the powers to be real, which is the argument's conclusion. Although psychics may not be real, their skills in comforting people are quite valuable and give them a good reason to stay in business. They help people move on with their lives. The trade survives because it satisfies a genuine need for someone to talk to, not because anything supernatural is taking place.

Premises

[P1]People have a natural need for someone to confide in — four in ten Americans have seen a therapist — and visiting a psychic serves the same need for guidance and comfort, but as a faster quick-fix that doesn't require the work therapy does. [P2] This means a psychic's real value lies in being empathetic and comforting rather than possessing any "sixth sense," which is why customers desperate to talk keep them in business. [C] Psychics succeed by meeting people's desperation for someone to talk to, not through genuine powers — so psychics are not real.

Counter-arguments

Psychics may seem somewhat like therapists, but they are not at all. The abilities they possess allow them to inform clients about the future, about their relationships, and their jobs. They guide, but what they do is completely different.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The comparison with therapy does more work than it can bear. That people want someone to confide in explains why the service is bought and says nothing about what the practitioner can or cannot do — the same premise would hold for a service that worked. The therapy statistic supports the general point about wanting to talk rather than anything specific to psychics. [Rejecting P2] "Real value lies in being empathetic" infers a mechanism from popularity, and popularity has other explanations the premise does not consider: the documented techniques of cold reading, statements broad enough to fit almost anyone, and the tendency to remember hits and forget misses. The premise also concedes something it should not, since a comforting conversation is not what the customer was told they were buying. [Rejecting C] The conclusion rests on the wrong kind of argument. Whether psychic ability exists is a question about evidence — and controlled tests of claimed abilities have not produced results distinguishable from chance — while explaining why an unfounded practice stays profitable is a separate matter. Building the position on commercial motive rather than on the tests leaves it open to exactly the counter's reply.