Astrology bunkum

So what comes first? Stereotypes or reality? I assume it is reality, then we spot patterns, and a stereotype is born. When we talk about "stereotypes[, they] refer to what social groups are perceived to be like, while social reality refers to what social groups are really like" (Lu et al., 2020, p. 1359). And stereotypes, or generalisations are what we are going to talk about today. 

What I find fascinating are that apparently, our Western take on astrological signs have been reintroduced into China and are becoming increasingly popular, even to the point where people, are putting their star sign on their CVs or being asked about it when they attend job interviews (Lu et al., 2020). It beggars belief. In the USA "Astrology is a $12 billion industry, and it’s gaining popularity with younger generations", and further, 40% of "Americans don’t know that astrology is not at all scientific" (Grant, 2024). Ouch. It seems that the Chinese don't either. 

As Adam Grant relates, he's "not biased against horoscopes—[he's] partial to strong evidence. If you have better data" he will reconsider (2024). But in the meantime, Professor Grant (2024) would rather rely on empirical data, such as that collected by MIT professor Jackson Lu and his team (2020). Surveying 173,709 Chinese participants and trying to align "their zodiac signs with their scores on the Big Five personality traits" (Grant, 2024), the research team found no correlation between their 'birth' signs and the characteristics of the Big Five: agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience (Daft, 2008). Astrology is increasingly popular in China, where the data was collected, yet despite surveyee belief in astrology, a correlation did not appear (Lu, 2020).

As Adam Grant related "If you think Libras are peace-loving, you might expect them to score in the 6 range on agreeableness. If you see Scorpios as argumentative, you’d put them around 2. You’d be mistaken. Scorpios averaged a 5.61 on agreeableness. Libras came in at 5.63. The scores for the other ten signs were all between 5.61 and 5.63 too. Every sign was equally agreeable" (2024). 

Astrological star signs are thought to provide an "illusory correlation", or "the Barnum Effect" (aka the Forer Effect). The stereotypes are each general enough for the credulous amongst us to take them as being 'real'. Yes, we can all be fooled. I remember dabbling with this stuff when I was a teenager: luckily not to the point of shelling out hard cash. 

But please remember that it is, for all the seduction of being able to tell the future, bunkum.

Sam

References:

Daft, R. L. (2008). The Leadership Experience (4th ed.). Cengage.

Grant, A. (2024, March 10). We need to talk about astrology. Granted. https://open.substack.com/pub/adamgrant/p/we-need-to-talk-about-astrology?utm_source=email&redirect=app-store

Lu, J. G., Liu, X. L., Liao, H., & Wang, L. (2020). Disentangling stereotypes from social reality: Astrological stereotypes and discrimination in China. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(6), 1359–1379. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000237