The future’s not in the stars, scientists say
A major scientific study into astrology has concluded there is no evidence to support a link between personality, intelligence and birth dates.
The study of more than 15,000 people found “in no cases did date of birth relate to individual differences in personality or general intelligence”.
The authors, from universities in Germany and Denmark, further wanted to examine a link between date of birth and popular sun signs in astrology, but found “no support”.
Writing in the May 2006 Elsevier journal, Personality and Individual Differences, the authors said: “We conclude that the present large-scale study provides no evidence for the existence of relevant relationships between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence.”
They added: “... if there is some truth to astrology then some general effects of prominent astrological factors like sun signs should be detectable using large enough samples.
“The present large-scale study certainly found no independent effects of sun signs, elements, or gender, and thus yields no support for the common claims of astrology.”
However, some astrologers insisted that there were more things in heaven and earth than could be dreamed of in such a study.
TV astrologer Russell Grant said the survey needed to distinguish between the “pop” astrology of using the sun signs and “proper” astrology.
He said: “Proper astrology is based on where all the planets are at the exact time of someone’s birth, and that has been used for thousands of years.”
Roy Gillett, president of the Astrological Association, said: “Having not seen the article I cannot comment deeply, but unless the person marking the study is an astrologer, then the findings are unlikely to be reliable.
“This is not the first time that non-astrologers have made comments on astrology. No one would dream of doing this in other scientific areas.”
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