Does Astrology Have Any Scientific Merit?

Do you ever check your horoscope out of curiosity to see what the future will bring? According to Horoscope.com, “Your financial goals could seem vague and uncertain at this time, Leo. Perhaps you face a crossroads in your life as far as income goes, and you might not be sure which way to go.” Who can’t relate to financial struggles and deciding which road to take? In one recent poll, 28 percent of respondents said that they believed in Astrology; 52 percent said that they did not believe in it; and 18 percent said that they were not sure.

What is Astrology?

In case the modern trend of Astrology has somehow passed you by and you don’t know, Astrology is the belief that one’s personality is influenced by the alignment of celestial bodies and the star sign you were born under. This is notably different from Astronomy, the study of celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. You can think of it like Astronomy studies the stars and other planets, but doesn’t associate personality with them. Astronomy and Astrology were considered to be the same study until around the time of the Enlightenment around the beginning of the eighteenth century. Even Johannes Kepler, one of the most influential astronomers, was considered to be an Astrologer during his time. The history of Astrology goes back farther than you might think.

History of Astrology

Divination, the practice of extracting signs from everyday objects to make predictions, has been around for centuries. The Babylonians and Sumerians had the idea that where the planets were in the sky could tell you the location of the gods. This can be traced back to the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqua, which is the earliest piece of what’s been called Babylonian Planetary Omens, and dates back to the first millennium BCE. Additionally, the Egyptians had the idea that stars made up constellations that the sun moves through. It is thought that this all started to come together into the beginnings of modern Astrology when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt around 330 BCE and cultures merged. The Egyptians contributed by adding the twelve zodiac signs (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces), and the dates related to each are roughly the times that their constellations appear in the sky, though this is no longer true today. The great astronomer Ptolemy was the one that popularized the notion of the twelve zodiac signs.

However, this doesn’t mean that planetary movement doesn’t affect our everyday lives, but it’s not in the way Astrologers would have you think. The rotation of the Earth makes day and night, and our revolution around the sun changes the season. The moon affects the tides, and some professions like fishing or farming track and plan around the phases of the moon.

What Science Has to Say

There has been a link between birth month and mental health. A study found that people with schizophrenia were more likely to have February birthdays, and another found that people with bipolar disorder born in winter and early spring have more severe symptoms. Studies from Japan and Sweden found that birth month affects agreeableness and novelty-seeking behaviors. However, these findings are not due to celestial bodies that are many lightyears away, but they are because of factors here on earth.

A study done by former Astrologer Geoffrey Dean and Professor Ivan Kelly of the University of Saskatchewan proves without a shadow of a doubt that time of birth doesn’t affect personality. They gave personality tests to over 2000 “time twins”, people born within minutes of each other, to see if their personalities were as similar as they should be if Astrology were to be believed. They found no significant correlation, thus disproving the notion that time of your birth and the alignment of celestial bodies has any affect upon how you act and who you are.

The Psychology Behind it All

You may be asking why so many people believe in Astrology if it has been proven to not be true. Is 28% of the population just ignorant? Obviously not. The believability of Astrology stems from the Placebo Effect and the vagueness of horoscopes paired with the availability heuristic.

Anyone that has taken an introductory psychology class has heard of the Placebo Effect. This is a phenomenon in which a person feels better after being told they are being given a treatment even though the treatment doesn’t actually affect anything, like a sugar pill. The same line of thinking can be applied to horoscopes. If you are told that today will be a good day for you, you may manifest your own good day because you were told that it would be so.

The other factor is the vagueness of statements and our ability to remember the times that our horoscope was correct more than the times it didn’t apply. Remember my horoscope from the beginning? So many people can relate to having financial issues whether they have an August birthday or not. If you make relatable statements like “you may feel out of it today and have trouble concentrating”, a majority of your reader base could agree.

As I mentioned previously, you are more likely to remember when your horoscope felt like it was written exactly for you than the times that none of the predictions applied. This is because of the availability heuristic, or the shortcut our brain takes to remember significant memories and cast aside mundane or insignificant memories. This bias makes us believe that Astrology is more accurate than it actually is, and this can help to explain its widespread popularity.

All in all, Astrology causes no harm and you are free to believe what you want to believe. Checking your horoscope casually does not make you an unscientific person. Plus, as we’ve learned, time of birth may have some impacts on personality, the Placebo Effect could cause you to make your day like the predictions say, and the availability heuristic can trick you into only remembering when your star sign described you perfectly. But you don’t have to believe everything I say; us Leos are domineering anyways.