People who subscribe to astrology and horoscopes tend to be more narcissistic and less intelligent, a new study has revealed.
Lund University psychologists surveyed 250 respondents about their beliefs on astrology, and their personalities.
Researchers found strong belief scores were higher in narcissism but lower in intelligence.
They also discovered that beliefs in horoscopes were associated with traits such as agreeableness, extroversion and other positive characteristics.
Narcissists may be more susceptible to horoscopes because they are more ‘fact-resistant’ and find the positive framing appeals to their grandiosity, the team said.
Astrology and horoscope subscriptions can make people less intelligent and more narcissistic (stock illustration).
The study was undertaken by psychologist Petri Kajonius of Sweden’s Lund University and his colleagues.
The researchers stated that Astrology has been growing in popularity despite its lack of scientific support in their paper.
‘It is not clear why this ancient practice of studying positions and movements of celestial bodies — with the conviction that they influence human behaviour — is going through a revival.’
Dr Kajonius and his colleagues wanted to see if a belief in astrology was associated with any particular personality trait.
They used social media to recruit 264 people and asked them to complete questionnaires.
This first survey explored whether participants believed in astronomy, and whether or not scientific research supports their belief.
Subsequent questions provided a general personality assessment — according to the ‘Big Five’ taxonomy — along with specific tests for levels of intelligence and narcissistic traits.
The team undertook a general personality assessment of each of their subjects according to the ‘Big Five’ taxonomy — which considers openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Separate tests measured intelligence and narcissism.
‘The main result showed that the higher the narcissism, perhaps surprisingly, the higher the belief in astrology,’ the researchers wrote.
The team realizes further research is needed to understand the causes of this association. However, they do have some hypotheses which may help explain the findings.
Since astrological predictions and horoscopes tend to be positively framed, this reinforces grandiose feelings — and thus might appeal even more to narcissists,’ they explained.
Alongside this, they noted, ‘narcissistic traits correlated with the belief that astrology is supported by science , which leads to a speculation that narcissists may generally be more fact resistant.’
After controlling for all potentially confounding variables, the team also found that ‘the higher the level of intelligence, the lower the belief in astrology.’
There were similar positive correlations between belief in Astrology and higher levels extroversion or agreeableness.
‘It is not clear why this ancient practice of studying positions and movements of celestial bodies — with the conviction that they influence human behaviour — is going through a revival,’ psychologist Petri Kajonius of Lund University and his colleagues wrote in their paper
Previous research has concluded that people are more likely to put stock in astrology at times of personal crisis — a fact, the team noted, that could explain why the popularity of the pseudoscience appears to be on the rise at the present.
Currently we are surrounded by stressors such as climate change and, recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes the topic pertinent,’ the researchers wrote.
‘Though embracing astrology might seem innocent, it is nonetheless possible that it facilitates uncritical thinking and favours biases.
Furthermore, they warned, ‘belief in astrology correlates with belief in multiple other pseudosciences as well as with belief in conspiracy theories — which indicates that it might not be all that harmless.’
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.