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Real astrology: Birth month really does affect personality

People’s personalities tend to vary somewhat depending on the season in which they are born, and astrological signs may have developed as a useful system for remembering these patterns, according to an analysis by UConn researcher Mark Hamilton. Such seasonal effects may not be clear in individuals, but can be discerned through averaging personality traits across large cohorts born at the same time of year. Hamilton’s analysis will be published in Comprehensive Psychology on 13 May.

Psychologists have known that certain personality traits tend to be associated with certain birth months. For example, people born in January and February tend to be more creative, and have a higher chance of being diagnosed with schizophrenia, than people born at any other time of year. And people born in odd-numbered months tend to be more extroverted than those born in even-numbered months.

Traditional Western astrology uses elements (water, earth, air and fire), sign duality (bright/dark) and sign qualities (cardinal, mutable and fixed) to describe and categorize these effects. It considers late December through early March as a “wet” time of year, and connects wetness with creativity, for example. “Fixed” signs are said to be more stubborn and persistent than others.

Astrology and celebrity

Hamilton looked at a data set of 300 celebrities from the fields of politics, science, public service, literature, the arts and sports. He found that celebrities’ birth dates tended to cluster at certain times of the year. ‘Wet’ signs were associated with more celebrities, as were signs classified as ‘bright’ and ‘fixed’.

“Psychologists want to dismiss these astrological correlations, but there are seasonality effects that we have yet to explain,” says Hamilton, a social scientist in the Communication Department at UConn. Hamilton is not arguing that heavenly bodies are the true source of these effects; rather, astrological aspects are just useful tools, or heuristics, that help people remember the timing and patterns of nature.

Hamilton is currently working with other researchers on an analysis of 85,000 celebrities dating from 3,000 B.C.E to the present era. He says that the seasonality effect on celebrity appears to hold true even in this large data set stretching across millennia and cultures.




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2 thoughts on “Real astrology: Birth month really does affect personality”

  1. This whole article is bogus.

    Most telling is this: “…people born in odd-numbered months tend to be more extroverted than those born in even-numbered months.”

    Seasonal connections at least have some (very minimal) basis on which to believe the results, but alternating months, where the divisions are an arbitrary human construct, shouts “NONSENSE!”

  2. I’ve known this for years. But I always attributed it to two factors. The mood of the people raising you at the time you are born, and what you notice as you are growing up.

    Every person lives differently in each season. So if you are born in the Winter, one or both of your parents may be a little moodier when you are born, and that in turn will affect your over all demeanor. If you are born in the summer the reverse may occur..they might be happier, and as a result, you might be happier.

    As you start to grow up, your first remembrances will form how you view the world, so if its cold out you might see the world in a different way than if you were born in the spring or summer..

    And believe it or not, your astrology sign is really multi-generational.. Because the birth months of your parents also affect how they react to the seasons.

    The thing to keep in mind is that there is no bad month to be born in. Usually if you are one thing or not one thing because of when you are born, you will also be something else to balance that out. For instance, Summer people might be brighter and tend to be more naturually happy, but winter people might get more satisfaction from their successes because they might feel like they had to work harder to (against their own moods) get it and that its worth while..

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