Your astrological sign doesn't mean **** personality-wise...

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First of all, in before any tl;dr's... (you can skip the charts if you want, there's more at the bottom of the post...)

I was inspired by a post in the Love and Dating forum where the thread topic wandered off into astrological signs. (link if anyone is interested). I was talking about how generic the personality traits related to the astrological signs really are, and further posting in that thread matching up personality traits to the purported sign traits took place. I was then inspired to create this: matching up my personality to all 12 astrological signs.

I know I'm preaching to the choir a bit here, but I felt like I needed to do this in order to have a little bit of an investigation into the concept of astrological signs and how they supposedly govern personality.

I looked up all the personality traits that are allegedly related to what sign a person is. I took lists from the wiki articles for each sign, and bolding which traits actually apply to me. Anyway, here goes...

I'm listing all the traits with those that actualy apply to me in bold. After each list, I calculate how much of the list applies to me on a points basis. If all traits in one item apply, that is worth one point, if 2 out of 3 applies, that's worth 2/3 of a point, and so on. Divide that by the number of items listed to get a percentage value for that particular sign.

Note: long-a** charts start here; for the short version, scroll down to the end of the post.

Let's start with my actual sign, Aquarius:

All points = 13
2 out of 3 = 3
1 out of 2 = 6
no points = 1
Total items = 24

13 + 3*(2/3) + 6*(1/2) = 13 + 2 + 3 = 18/24 = 75.0%

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From now on I'll just go through the year's signs in order, so now for Pisces:


All points = 8
1 out of 2 = 2
no points = 2
Total items = 14

8 + 1*(2/3) + 2*(1/2) = 9 + 1 = 10/14 = 71.4%

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Aries:


*note: I'm fairly self-confident under normal circumstances, although that fails me in romantic situations, so I'm only scoring that item as 1/2 points

All points = 9
1 out of 2 = 1
Total items = 14

9 + 1*(1/2) = (9 1/2)/14 = 67.9%

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Taurus:


*These two items, while listed separately, I thought were too close to each other to be considered separate items. Therefore they will be integrated as one item and the item count is reduced by one.
**conservative in the sense of aesthetics and some beliefs, not necessarily political alignment.

All points = 16
2 out of 3 = 2
1 out of 2 = 2
Total items = 23*

16 + 2*(2/3) + 2*(1/2) = (18 1/3)/23 = 79.7%

=====================================================

Gemini:


All points = 12
Total items = 22

12/22 = 54.5%

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Cancer:


All points = 25
Total items = 36

25/36 = 69.4%

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Leo:


All points = 7
Total items = 14

7/14 = 50.0%

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Virgo:


All points = 9
2 out of 3 = 1
1 out of 2 = 1
Total items = 12

9 + 1*(2/3) + 1*(1/2) = (10 1/6)/12 = 84.7%

=====================================================

Libra:


*I'm not married, but I dont see myself as someone who would cheat on a spouse

All points = 8
2 out of 3 = 1
1 out of 3 = 1
Total items = 18

8 + 1*(2/3) + 1*(1/3) = 9/18 = 50.0%


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Scorpio:


All points = 4
1 out of 2 = 3
Total items = 15

4 + 3*(1/2) = (5 1/2)/15 = 36.7%

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Sagittarius:


*Confidence is only being scored as 1/2 point for same reason as Aries sign.

All points = 9
2 out of 3 = 3
1 out of 2 = 1
Total items = 21

9 + 3*(2/3) + 1*(1/2) = 9 + 2 + (1/2) = (11 1/2)/21 = 54.7%

=====================================================

Capricorn:


All points = 13
2 out of 3 = 1
1 out of 2 = 3
Total items = 21

13 + 1*(2/3) + 3*(1/2) = (15 1/6)/21 = 72.2%

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Okay, so overall, here's the percentages for my personality:
Aquarius = 75.0%
Pisces = 71.4%
Aries = 67.9%
Taurus = 79.7%
Gemini = 54.5%
Cancer = 69.4%
Leo = 50.0%
Virgo = 84.7%
Libra = 50.0%
Scorpio = 36.7%
Sagittarius = 54.7%
Capricorn = 72.2%

If astrological signs amounted to everything, Aquarius (my actual sign) would be significantly higher than the others. While it is fairly high, it definitely doesn't dwarf the competition, and two other signs actually ranked higher than it (Virgo beating it by almost 10 percentage points).

Overall, due to the fact that all but Scorpio scored 50% or higher, along with the many repeated vague personality traits involved that are subject to interpretation (and I may very well have been inconsistent on if I slipped up anywhere in there), the only conclusion that I can come up with is that the astrological signs are merely representation of possible human psyches, and in no way connected to what month one happens to be born in. Therefore, anyone who actually believes in this crap should start using their brains a bit more...

I never believed any of it, or even understood it really. I always thought it was more for fun anyway and have never known anyone who does believe it.

The Zodiac in fact really WORKS!
I dont know why, and I know it shouldnt, but AFAIC it is the MOST EFFECTIVE classification system evar.
If you have a better system that can more accurately categorize peoples personalities Im open to seeing. I honesty dont think that the Meyes-Briggs is in depth enough.

Astrology is superstitious nonsense. I oughta know, as I used to construct astological charts, both natal and current, for money and other favors. It's all such a scam that I invented my own system, and it was just as accurate as the more "traditional" systems; which is to say that the vague generalisations could apply to anybody, and most of its prognosticative features were based on the astrologer's ability to "read" clients and tell them exactly what they wanted to hear.

Only this, and nothing more.

Using astrology or any kind of soothsaying to predict the future certainly IS nonsense. But just exactly WHAT is your system of personality classification Fnord? The Zodiac is very appealing because its so categorical.

I'm not getting into an argument over astrology and other forms of duping the public. Nor am I giving away my astrology system for free, even though I don't use it any more. You're on your own, kid.

Oh lord... I saw Fnord's name in the "latest post" and I thought "that can't be good..."

I am Not a kid, you punk.

I'm 51 years old. To me, you are as much a kid as Kasuki-Chan, who is only 15, as would be anyone who is young enough to be my child. and let me assure you that it's nothing personal.

The Myers-Briggs system is hardly valid either. It certainly isn't scientific.

Science provides an explanation for certain phenomena that are well-understood. People resort to spirituality, mysticism and pseudoscience to try to explain phenomena that are not well-understood. As far as understanding the human mind and brain goes, there are a lot of obvious questions that have not been properly answered - so if you see anything trying to jumble together all kinds of strong statements about how minds work, be very suspicious because it may very well be BS in disguise.

One of the reasons I reject pseudoscience, and particularly things like magic is because I actually have TRIED them before and they simply dont work! I tend to approach this sort of thing from a pragmatic standpoint. If I try it repeatedly and it WORKS, then I am going to use it for cryin out loud! Thats the thing about the Zodiac. Ive looked up the 12 different signs and the different personality characteristics of each sign and when I apply them to myself and to those I know it all makes PERFECT sense. Hector, regardless of what is known, and what remains to be known about the mind and brain, personality for the most part is fairly well understood. What is not so well understood is sentience and whether or not sentience is a thing in itself or an effect generated by a physical process.

Christianity makes a lot more sense than astrology, to me, when it comes to metaphysics, although I'm not sure if there is a christian denomination which would include some part of astrology though.

Anyway, the issue against astrology when it comes to the zodiac, has been pointed out by astronomy with observations to related constellations, for one, constellations are said to be only illusions, stars are not actually organized that way in space, and the conected patterns have been made by human perception, that worked in ancient history to organize what people saw in the sky, considering that constellations are perceived and organized based in a two-dimensional perception, taking a look to any of those from a different angle, in a three-dimensional space, not only the shape of the constellation is lost but which stars as well. The constellation of Aries, for example, not only would not really exist as a group, much less have a mystical value towards humanity, given the lack of such group.

That said, perceived closed stars may very well be independent one of another, constellations themselves and relating some of them to meaning or life, are said to be artificial human constructs.

It doesn't really make much sense, that any object or a group of objects that are several light years away from us, to have any impact on human life here on earth, in a mystical way, however, I think that it can be possible that near stars may do some help to our sun in some way, to his "life", although I really don't know and it's just a speculation, however, I do know that the sun and the moon have an impact on us related to our existence, as well as some planets, at least Jupiter seems to play a part on it, other than that, I don't see the point.

The midwife presiding at your birth had more gravitational influence on you than Jupiter ever did.

In the case of the Zodiac, its not the constellations that are the source of influence, its the Sun. BTW Macbeth, the electromagnetic force(from the sun) is MUCH stronger than gravitation. Gravity is FAR too weak to influence the biochemistry of the brain because if if werent, life as we know it could not exist.

Probably not. A parsimonious explanation for the impression that it works is the Barnum effect or Forer effect:


I read the original paper a few years ago, and IIRC the Wikipedia article is accurate. You can easily replicate the experiment. I have never seen anything coming from astrology that can't be adequately explained by the Forer effect or shown to have more plausible alternative explanations.

Toad of Steel, I am curious to know what your Ascendant/Rising Sign and Moon sign are, because most serious astrologers say that the sun sign on its own is often not a reliable indicator of general personality, because a strong planetary presence in or around the ascendant sign, or the natal moon, or midheaven, etc, will frequently indicate/reflect other more powerful factors in one's life or personality.

So, for instance, Virgo, Taurus, Capricorn, or Pisces may be strong elements in your chart because are your ascendant sign, contain several planets, or are powerfully aspected.

It is interesting, for example, that three of the five signs which you most identified with are Earth signs. This might be because an earth sign in your chart has many planets in it, or because planets are present in each of the three earth signs, forming a triangle across your horoscope, which would represent a powerful earth tendency/foundation to your personality.

Do you have a chart? Do you know which planets are where, and what your ascendant is?
.

Last edited by ouinon on 07 Dec 2008, 3:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.