do you believe in horoscopes?

Burnsy2023 said:
I wouldn't quite agree with that. I think there are more personal characteristics that people born at roughly same time of year may share and this leads to personality traits that the advice may be suited towards.
Click to expand...
Got any reasonable evidence to back up your idea there? ;)

In other news, my horoscope for today from dailyhoroscopes.com:
Frustration, especially in getting things accomplished, if you are not careful, may set today's mood. It would be easy to become upset if you have squeezed yourself into a small, unrealistic time schedule. You may want to pull in some help and step back to reassess and find a different way to accomplish the same result. This may call for a meeting in order to get a variety of ideas and input. You are definitely on the right track. This afternoon you may find yourself interested in the problems of young people. You could find yourself devoting one day a week toward the advancement of child protection or children?s educational interests. There is a keen sense of color, of music and all of the arts--the beautiful and the comfortable
Click to expand...
Well, today so far, I ignored my alarm clock and woke up 1 hour later when I was meant to be in work. Doesn't particularly concern me really, as I have nothing to do today anyway. I don't think re-assessing my day is going to help with that. My boss is going home after lunch, so the chance of a meeting is also out. I have no interest in the problems of young people right now, and intent to spend this afternoon mostly browsing the news and various internet sites. Not quite sure about the colour and music. My girlfriends coming back today after a 3 week trip, though, so they missed out on the relatively common one about meeting someone. Their loss.

If you were wondering, I'm doing a PhD, and generally I do more than today. I haven't got any experiments on at the minute.
 
Last edited:
There is a word I can't think of, it describes how ambiguous vague statements (such as horoscopes) are believable to the masses.

Got it -

The Forer effect (also called the Barnum Effect after P.T. Barnum's observation that "we've got something for everyone") is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, and some types of personality tests.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect
 
Last edited:
Not in the slightest.
But thats me, typical Gemini. ;)

If you can find it - Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment was a good test of horoscopes.
 
Divide the population of the earth into 12 and have a think about the millions upon millions of people who would be experiencing the same things on the same days if they were true.

I think you need to think a bit bigger OP....how old are you?
 
A.N.Other said:
Got any reasonable evidence to back up your idea there? ;)
Click to expand...

After a quick Google, there does seem to be research to back up my hypothesis.

Conclusions: We discuss the associations in the literature between personality and the monoamines serotonin and dopamine, and suggest that our results are compatible with a hypothesis of season of birth variation in the monoamine turnover. The personality traits are likely to be influenced by several genetic and environmental factors, one of them being the season of birth.
Click to expand...

Biological Psychiatry. Main Editor: J. Mendlewicz (Brussels) / Original Paper

Season of Birth Variations in the Temperament and Character Inventory of Personality in a General Population
Jayanti Chotaia, Thomas Forsgrena, Lars-Göran Nilssonb, Rolf Adolfssona

aDivision of Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Umeå, and
bDepartment of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Address of Corresponding Author

Neuropsychobiology 2001;44:19-26 (DOI: 10.1159/000054909)
 
I cannot reason why I should believe them. To suggest that 500m (approx) people in the world should have the exact same 'life' experience each day is just crazy.

Plus there is the fact that throughout the world you can get, I am guessing, a million different Horoscopes for the same birth sign. The odds are that some of these must in some way contradict each other.

As a piece of 'fiction' meant to pep the downtrodden up I can see how they work.

Similar to betting swindles, if I gave 5 different tips to enough people I have to eventually get them right, probably :)

Burnsy2023 said:
Stuff..
Click to expand...

I do agree with you, to some degree, that the area, time and season of our birth can have an affect on our personality traits. However, I beleive that as we grow older current environmental factors become prevalent and as such out initial birth 'phase' traits have little to do with our current Psyche. Making horoscopes even more implausible.
 
Last edited:
Saviola said:
However, I beleive that as we grow older current environmental factors become prevalent and as such out initial birth 'phase' traits have little to do with our current Psyche.
Click to expand...

I'd be interested to see research on how much our personality traits change as we get older and therefore how much of an effect this has.
 
Obviously you won't like it if there is tension between people. However, it may be that a storm is needed to clear the air. It may be that you now have too much on your plate. Someone who cares deeply, and who may have been born under the sign of Cancer, might also suggest that your priorities are skewed. On top of all of this, you could be grappling with difficult news concerning a friend who lives a long way away.
Click to expand...

Just looked up my horoscope for today (which im led to beleive i share with approx 558,104,503.4 other people).

How could anyone NOT believe in this!
 
Burnsy2023 said:
I'd be interested to see research on how much our personality traits change as we get older and therefore how much of an effect this has.
Click to expand...

I would too :) I am only making that assumption on my own traits and those of people around me, who have known for along time.

I am obviously talking of Personality traits and not those of a biological nature (although they can be easily changed nowadays :))
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom