Many astrologers insist that a person's Sun sign is closely related to his career choices. In fact, career counseling has also become an important function of modern astrology. So John McGervey, a physicist at Case Western Reserve University, compared the resumes and birthdays of about 6,000 politicians and 17,000 scientists. I want to see if the birthdays of these two types of practitioners are like horoscopes. As predicted by the division, they are concentrated in certain constellations. The results show that the constellations of these two types of people are completely random.
Is a person's career development really related to his constellation? Statistics show that the distribution of constellations by at least thousands of politicians and tens of thousands of scientists is completely random. Image source: predictmydestiny.com
Some astrologers believe that the Sun sign alone is not enough to predict. In this regard, Shawn Carlson of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory designed a clever experiment. He asked several groups of volunteers to provide their complete astrological information, and then asked them to fill out the California Personality Questionnaire, a standard psychological questionnaire that used the broad, general, descriptive language of the astrologer.
A “reputable” astrology group watched the stars for the volunteers, and 28 professional astrologers agreed to participate in the experiment. Each of them received a star, plus three descriptions of personality, one of which was the owner of the astrology. The astrologer's mission is to interpret the astrology and then select the one that they think is the best match among the three descriptions.
Although these astrologers predict that their correct rate can reach more than 50%, after 116 rounds of experiments, their actual correctness is only 34% - just the equivalent of guess! On December 5, 1985, Carson published this result in the famous scientific journal Nature, which is quite awkward for the astrology industry.
Another experiment shows that the content of the astrology is actually not important. What is important is that the seeker should think that the astrologer's interpretation is directed at him. A few years ago, French statistician Michel Gauquelin collected astrological information about a fierce serial killer in French history, sent it to 150 people and asked them to evaluate their match with the information. degree. As a result, 94% of respondents claimed to see themselves in this description.
Australian researcher Geofrey Dean has extensively tested astrology. He reversed the constellation information of 22 subjects and replaced the descriptive words with antonyms. As a result, 95% of the participants still claimed that the description was accurate, which was the same as the one who saw the original description. It can be seen that those who go to the astrology want only guidance, and whatever guidelines can be used.
A while ago, astronomers Carver and Iana traced the predictions made by several famous astrologers and astrology groups over the past five years, resulting in more than 3,000 detailed predictions (many about politicians, movie stars and other celebrities). Only about 10% is right. In exchange for a senior reporter or a lot of people reading newspapers to watch TV, the results will be much more accurate.
If the astrologer's predictions based on the constellation are nine times out of 10, then they seem to be unable to become reliable candidates for life choices and national affairs. But despite this, there are still hundreds of millions of people who believe in them.
Obviously, these astronomy enthusiasts can't hope that the public's obsession with astrology will disappear. But we should still state our opinions in a favorable or appropriate time, discuss the shortcomings of astrology, and point out the theoretical basis of its fragility. Astronomers who work with young people can use their knowledge to develop healthy skepticism in the hearts of young people and encourage them to be interested in the real universe—the distant planets and stars have their own charm, their life on earth creatures. And do not care about desires. We can't let the next generation grow up in the fantasy of the ancients, because it is the illusion that people are huddled in the era of fear of the night by the fire.
The author, Andrew Flaknoi, is a professor of astronomy at Foothill College in the United States. In 2007, he was awarded the California Professor of the Year Award by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education and the Association for the Advancement of Education and Support. Richard of the Pacific Astronomical Society The Richard H. Emmons award and the Andrew Gemant Award from the American Physical Society.