PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 68: Astrology: What’s PopStuff’s Sign?

It may surprise you to know that I’m a Taurus, and Holly is a Gemini. It may also surprise you to know that neither of us believes in astrology (or, more succinctly, we both think it’s bunk) … but we look up our horoscopes from time to time. Or, in Holly’s case, all the times.

Here’s what we got to the bottom of in our exploration of astrology in pop culture:

• There’s no scientific evidence to back up astrology in the sense of planets through constellations affecting events or people.
• In Chinese astrology, Holly is a metal pig, and I’m a something rabbit. (I tried to look this up and failed.)
• U.S. interest in astrology started gearing up in the ’60s
• Reasons why people tend to believe astrology: the Forer effect, aka the Barnum Effect, and confirmation bias/expectation confirmation
• Astrology vs. the Myers-Briggs type indicator
• The language of horoscopes and how they lure people into belief
• Birth month correlations with schizophrenia, MS and dyslexia (which doesn’t actually support astrology)
• Another thing I somehow believe while knowing it’s not real: ghosts
• When you get booed off stage, that’s just ghosts applauding, which is wisdom from Sharon Needles on “Ru Paul’s Drag Race“
• Precession and why that means the signs aren’t where they were when zodiac astrology was invented
• Conception astrology vs. birth astrology
• Free Will Astrology
• Listener mail! From Hannah in response to our episode Crazy Pet People
• How Horoscopes Work (from HowStuffWorks) or birthday astrology (from TLC)
• Episode link: Astrology: What’s PopStuff’s Sign?

My research:

• Komath, Manoj. “Testing astrology.” Current Science. Vol. 96, No. 12. June 2009.
• Munro, Geoffrey D. “Using Daily Horoscopes to Demonstrate Expectancy Confirmation.”
• Svensen, Stuart and Ken White. “A Content Analysis of Horoscopes.” Vol. 121, Issue 1. Feb. 1995.
• Truzzi, Marcello. “Astrology as Popular Culture.” Vol. 8, Issue 4. Teaching of Psychology. Vol. 7, Issue 2, 2000.

Holly’s research:

• Psychology of Astrology
• Science Confirms Astrology!
• Cross-Cultural Differences in the Acceptance of Barnum Profiles Supposedly Derived From Western Versus Chinese Astrology

You can follow PopStuff on Twitter at @PopStuffHSW, and you can keep up with us on the official PopStuff Facebook page.