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Do zodiac signs influence anything?
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Zodiac signs influence our personality

Celestial phenomena are related to human activity, so the signs represent certain characteristics of behavior and personality traits.
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The Argument

Studies have proven that people who were born at similar times in the year have similar traits or habits. The zodiac signs are organized by birth dates and even without the formal labeling of zodiac signs, studies have illustrated correlations within the signs. A Japanese study found that people born December through February have lower agreeableness (this term has a precise definition to personality psychologists). A Swedish study found that (at least in women), February, March and April birthdays led to increased novelty-seeking behavior. Another study reported that summer-born males are less conscientious (another term with a formal meaning).[1] Adjacent signs often have opposing, or at least unrelated, personalities, while science says that adjacent birth months are similar. Conversely, when someone says there's no possible way the month you are born could have any influence on your personality, they aren't exactly correct. Schizotypal personality has been correlated with certain birth months, which may be associated with many personality traits and habits.

Counter arguments

Shawn Carlson, a physicist at the University of California, conducted a double blind test to prove that zodiac signs do not reflect our personalities. He recruited 30 well known astrologers and asked them to match the personalities of 116 people with their zodiac signs. As a result, they were only right about a third of the time. Carlson states that “their predicted connection between the positions of the planets and other astronomical objects at the time of birth and the personalities of test subjects did not exist. The experiment clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis.”[2]

Premises

[P1] Our zodiac sign offers indicators to our personality traits.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] This has been scientifically disproved.

References

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4958653/
  2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326786370_Support_for_Astrology_from_the_Carlson_Double-blind_Experiment
This page was last edited on Tuesday, 2 Jun 2020 at 14:04 UTC

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