Astrology - do you believe?

Not necessarily in the daily predictions (which I think is mostly airy fairy, applies to practically everything nonsene), but in the character traits of star signs and the relationships between different signs?

I might be tempted to think that there was something in them if every description of my star sign was the same.  But apparently my character can change radically depending on the source of the description.

Yes...

Maybe thats why I have out star signs tattoo'd on my shoulder

Statistically speaking there must be about 5,000,000 Capricorns like me in the UK, that worries me if true

Its all a bit of a laugh isnt it - reading the horoscope and then you make it fit your circumstances.  But seeing as the planets dont revolve around the sun in a 12 month perfect cycle - I fail to see how all people born between a set of dates share similarities with others of a completely different planetary alignment.

That said - there used to be a woman here who would tell you what your birthday was - just from watching you. Spooky.

Unless she had a pal in HR anyway...

Nope!

My brother can pick out someone birthday. I have no idea how he does it, but he's a big believer in star signs. And he can usually pick out what people's spouses are as well, based on 'compatibility'. It is spooky 

As far as I know the star signs are based on 12 rather randomly distributed constellations, i.e. groups of stars which happen to fall into a nice recognisable visible pattern when viewed from a certain time and place (planet Earth, when it's dark!), out of roughly a trillion-gazzillion stars in the universe.

At best, might there be certain genuine character traits which are affected by the time of year you're born? I'm no Freudian but if there are things that happen to you at a very young age that affect your development, might the change of seasons from Winter to Summer (or vice versa) have a different effect on a 6 month old than a 12 month old??  Dunno.  (Or maybe being born in January makes you more likely to be a miserable git because everyone's too hungover and skint to celebrate your birthday!)  Add a huge slab of confirmation bias and a hefty dose of meaningless truisms from people with ulterior motives and you've got astrology!

That'll be a no from me then.  (Took me a while to convince myself though, what with being a Gemini.)

I recall reading, poss at Peak Performance, a piece about running performance differences between summer & winter born athletes. I forget the detail but the conclusion was that these diferences do exist.

So there may be physical differences in addition to PhilPub's comments above.

But no, not caused by star signs.

What do you mean a miserable git just because I was born in January, though people do forget my birthday or use the excuse it's too close to Christmas!

If I can be bothered I will read a few different ones then pick the one I like

oi.you wrote (see)

I recall reading, poss at Peak Performance, a piece about running performance differences between summer & winter born athletes. I forget the detail but the conclusion was that these diferences do exist.

So there may be physical differences in addition to PhilPub's comments above.

But no, not caused by star signs.

There was something about American footballers and how pros tended to be born in (can't remember which season, what ever is the start of the American academic year), but the main reason was that they were the eldest in their academic year, so tended to be bigger and stronger than those who could be almost a year younger, so tended to be better at football, more likely to be pushed and more likely to make it as pros.  Think I read this is freakanomics.

PhilPub wrote (see)

That'll be a no from me then.  (Took me a while to convince myself though, what with being a Gemini.)

 

ROFLOLOL ! 

The voices in my head tell me not to believe !

As I said elsewhere, as a Libran, I'm very balanced.

And if you know me you know how true that is.

The day to day paper stuff is utter vague nonsense, usually along the lines of "a situation will arise this week that could offer positive news, whilst someone close to you will need some support".

Having said that, and not actually believing anything to do with it, if you look through the characteristics for your star sign, some of them are pretty spot on.

Now this may well be because there are loads, so some have to fit.

sarah the bookworm wrote (see)

My brother can pick out someone birthday. I have no idea how he does it, but he's a big believer in star signs. And he can usually pick out what people's spouses are as well, based on 'compatibility'. It is spooky 

I know someone who can do that and it's incredible how precise they are. We did a blind test one day with a group of 10 people and they got 9/10 right (the one that they missed was born on the last day of the sign).

It is true that there are medical differences in people who are born at different times of the year, but that is thought to be due to the amount of sunlight, amount of exercise, the seasonal diet, etc of the mother when pregnant.

Potentially I guess that could play a part on some basic characteristics, but it doesn't seem very likely to me, and certainly wouldn't be as pronounced as 12 star signs.

The 12 star signs are based on the rising & falling of certain constellations and were laid down in ancient greece (I think). If you took the same line/horizon now, there would be 13 start signs as the shift in the heavens oner the millenia since they were laid down has been pretty significant. That makes me think the influence of the star signs on human behaviour is negligible. 

That's not to say that people born in different time of year may not display different characteristics. love to see the blind test carried out with antipodeans, who will have contrary seasons for the start signs and see how that impacts on those who say they can pick star signs. 

Caitlin's right, there is evidence that sportspeople are usually from certain months, but that is believed to be down to how they fall in the school year. it's not just American football either, true for athletics and other sports as well. A child born in August will always be competing against children nearly a year older and will tend to be beaten on those grounds. At school age, a year is a massive difference, such that the later births are less likely to be picked for the school teams simply on the bases that they lag behind in age, not necessarily ability. This is perpetuated up the school system, such that if you look at successful adult sportspeople they tend to be born between september & Christmas. it's not so much an effect of the time they were born, more when that time falls in an arbitrary date cut off system, in this instance.