Forget the crystal ball, we don’t want to see the future

WE have spent centuries trying to read the future – but it turns out that we don’t want to know.

While every civilisation since the ancient Greeks has attempted to predict what is to come, a study suggests most of us are not interested in what fortune tellers, tea leaves or tarot cards have to say.

The findings are consistent whether the news is positive or negative, and whether it involves sport, health, marriage or what you will get for Christmas. The only subject on which people want to know the future is the sex of their unborn child, researchers from Germany and Spain found.

The psychological study of 2,000 people found up to 90 per cent do not want to know about negative events, and up to 70 per cent do not want to know about positive events. Participants were asked hypothetical questions. Some were negative – such as when they would die or whether their marriage would end in divorce – while others were positive.

Around nine in ten did not want to know when they or their partner would die, or whether their marriage would last.

Some 57 per cent did not want to know if there was life after death and 77 per cent did not want to know a forthcoming foot- ball score. But 63 per cent would want to know the sex of their baby in advance.

The authors, whose work is published in the journal Psychological Review, found that people who prefer not to know the future are more risk averse.

The findings may imply that those offered medical screening – for instance for Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer or genetic conditions – may not really want to know the results.