Astrology and the Scientific Method
Abstract
Despite the fact that virtually all scientists reject astrology as unfounded superstition, it continues to hold a powerful grip on the belief-systems of millions of people. With the advent of computer technology, rigorous statistical tests have been carried out to examine the validity of the oft-heard claim that astrology works. The results of these recent tests are uniformly negative. Application of the scientific method then leads us to reject the astrological hypothesis.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Astrologers widely claim that sun-sign horoscopes are highly informative about relationships and career, and such horoscopes are what are normally encountered in magazines and newspapers.
“Despite its comparatively greater simplicity, astrologers widely claim sun sign horoscopes to be highly informative regarding matters such as relationships and career, and these represent what is normally encountered in magazines and newspapers (Crowe, 1990).”
From The validity of astrological predictions on marriage and divorce: a longitudinal analysis of Swedish register data (2020) · cites this paper as Crowe, 1990
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Helgertz, J., & Scott, K. (2020) · Genus · doi:10.1186/s41118-020-00103-5 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
- Authors
- Crowe, R. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Hawaii at Hilo (US)
- Corresponding author
- Crowe, Richard A.
- Venue
- Psychological Reports
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1990-08
- Volume
- 67
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 163-191
- ISSN
- 0033-2941 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-691X
- OpenAlex
- W2024144355
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Reports (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies
- Keywords
- astrology, scientific method, hypothesis testing, belief systems, superstition
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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