Why do Steel-type Pokémon resist Psychic-type moves?

Question

When you think about Kadabra and Alakazam bending spoons with their minds, you would think that Steel would be weak to Psychic, right? Well it isn't. And for some reason, Steel was resistant to Ghost and Dark until Generation VI.

Comments

Not all Psychic types are Kadabra or Alakazam.
As for why Steel was resistant to Ghost and Dark, i don't know.

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1. Balancing purposes
2. Yeah uh try to get mob from mob psycho to lift a steel beam with his mind. Would be pretty hard wouldn’t it?

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Like the anime reference, KCK.

Answer 1

The only concrete reason I could find was this:

In the Generation I games, Psychic-type Pokémon were at the center of a balance issue.1 As a result, the issue was rectified in Generation II, with the addition of Steel and Dark types, an added weakness to Ghost-type moves (as opposed to previously being immune to them), as well as some moves that are strong against Psychic types.

Link

I also searched up a bunch about metal and psychic powers. All I really found was that apparently Silver is supposed to be psychic itself, and that tinfoil is supposedly able to prevent mind reading. Psychic types resist themselves and psychics are generally seen as able to mind read, so even if Game Freak just added that resistance for balance, there are still plausible reasons why Steel would resist Psychic. :P

Also, Steel resisted pretty much everything in Gens 2-5, so they probably removed the Ghost and Dark resistances in Gen 6 so that it would be balanced with the introduction of Fairy types (as Steel has advantage over them). :P

Hope I Helped!

Comments

Yep. It helped. When you explained about the tin-foil, it made me think of the Futurama special; Into the Wild Green Yonder where Phillip wore tin-foil over his head to prevent him reading other people's minds.