ArticlePDF Available

The relationship between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence: A large-scale study

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

We investigated the relationship between date of birth and individual differences in personality and intelligence in two large samples. The first sample consisted of 4000+ middle-aged male subjects from the Vietnam Experience Study; personality was measured by the MMPI items converted to EPQ (scales) and a large battery of cognitive tests were factored to derive general intelligence, g. The second sample consisted of 11,000+ young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth from 1979. g was extracted from the ten subtests of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.In no cases did date of birth relate to individual differences in personality or general intelligence.A further goal was to test Eysenck’s notion of possible relationships between date of birth and the popular Sun Signs in astrology. No support could be found for such associations.We conclude that the present large-scale study provides no evidence for the existence of relevant relationships between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence.
Content may be subject to copyright.
Related Articles in ScienceDirect
View More Related Articles
View Record in Scopus
Cited By in Scopus (1)
SummaryPlus Full Text + Links PDF (515 K) View thumbnail images | View full size images
Home Browse Search My Settings Alerts Help
Quick Search Title, abstract, keywords Author
Journal/book title Volume Issue Page
Personality and Individual Differences
Volume 40, Issue 7, May 2006, Pages 1349-1362
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.017
Copyright © 2005 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
The relationship between date of birth and individual
differences in personality and general intelligence: A
large-scale study
Peter Hartmanna, , , Martin Reuterb and Helmuth Nyborga
aIndividual Differences Research Unit (IDRU), University of Aarhus, Department of
Psychology, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
bAbteilung für Diffentielle Psychologie, Justus Liebig University of Giessen,
Otto-Behagelstrasse 10F, 35394 Giessen, Germany
Received 21 March 2005; revised 1 October 2005; accepted 1 November 2005.
Available online 19 January 2006.
Abstract
We investigated the relationship between date of birth and individual differences
in personality and intelligence in two large samples. The first sample consisted of
4000+ middle-aged male subjects from the Vietnam Experience Study;
personality was measured by the MMPI items converted to EPQ (scales) and a
large battery of cognitive tests were factored to derive general intelligence, g.
The second sample consisted of 11,000+ young adults from the National
Longitudinal Study of Youth from 1979. g was extracted from the ten subtests of
the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.
In no cases did date of birth relate to individual differences in personality or
general intelligence.
A further goal was to test Eysenck’s notion of possible relationships between
date of birth and the popular Sun Signs in astrology. No support could be found for such
associations.
We conclude that the present large-scale study provides no evidence for the existence of
relevant relationships between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general
Login:
Register
Variations in personality traits
among adolescents and ...
Personality and Individual
Differences
Born lucky? The relationship
between feeling lucky and ...
Personality and Individual
Differences
The Temperament Scale of
Novelty Seeking in adolescents...
Psychiatry Research
Environmental variability selects
for large families on...
Personality and Individual
Differences
International handbook of
personality and intelligence:...
Personality and Individual
Differences
intelligence.
Keywords: Astrology; Intelligence; Personality; Date of birth; Seasonal variation
Article Outline
1. Introduction
1.1. Intelligence
1.2. Personality
1.3. Astrology
2. Methodology
2.1. Subjects
2.2. Instruments
2.2.1. The VES study
2.2.1.1. Intelligence
2.2.1.2. Personality
2.2.1.3. Date of birth (VES)
2.2.2. The NLSY1979 study
2.2.2.1. Intelligence
2.2.2.2. Personality
2.2.2.3. Date of birth (NLSY1979)
2.3. Statistical evaluation
2.3.1. The VES study
2.3.2. The NLSY1979 study
3. Results
3.1. The VES study
3.2. The NLSY1979 study
4. Discussion
References
1. Introduction
Several studies have investigated the relationship between date of birth and individual differences in
personality or general intelligence but, in general, these studies are based on small sample sizes. Only a
couple of newer studies by Chotai, Forsgren, Nilsson, and Adolfsson (2001) and by Chotai, Lundberg, and
Adolfsson (2003), operate with appropriate sample sizes (i.e. 2130 and 1145 subjects, respectively). The
present study circumvents the inherent problems with small samples by combining two unusually large
populations to a total of more than 15,000 subjects. To optimise the chances of finding even remote
relationships between date of birth and individual differences in personality and intelligence we further
applied two different strategies. The first one was based on the common chronological concept of time (e.g.
month of birth and season of birth). The second strategy was based on the (pseudo-scientific) concept of
astrology (e.g. Sun Signs, The Elements, and astrological gender), as discussed in the book “Astrology:
Science or superstition?” by Eysenck and Nias (1982).
A thorough review of the scientific literature is beyond the scope of this article since the voluminous
literature dates back to the forties, but it is worth noting that many relationships have been established
between date of birth and normal intelligence, personality, and also with psychiatric diseases and differences
in physical attributes (Chotai et al., 2001 and Joinson and Nettle, 2005). This present study limits itself to
examining associations between date of birth, personality, and general intelligence.
1.1. Intelligence
A series of articles suggest that subjects born during spring or summer are significantly more intelligent than
subjects born during the rest of the year, though the differences are small (e.g. Bibby et al., 1996, Eysenck,
1995, Eysenck and Nias, 1982 and Pintner and Forlano, 1943). We found no post-1996 studies suggesting
that date of birth is related to intelligence, but based on the early reports we expected to find a small but
significant difference in intelligence in favour of subjects born during the spring or summer time.
1.2. Personality
A complete review of this topic is also beyond the scope of the present report so, with one exception, we
emphasise studies from the past decade.
Forlano and Ehrlich (1941) studied the relationship between date of birth and personality and found that
subjects scoring high on Extraversion (E) and low on Neuroticism (N) were more prone to be born during the
colder months of the year. Gupta (1992) used the Hindi version of the EPI on 104 subjects (27–38 years of
age) and the I6 reports that people born during the summer score higher on Neuroticism than subjects born
during winter or autumn, and lower on Impulsiveness than subjects born during spring and autumn. Moreover,
subjects born during summer and winter appeared more Venturesome than subjects born during spring or
autumn.
Chichilenko and Barbarash (2001) studied 154 male 17–20 year old young adults and found that those born
during winter, in general, scored significantly higher on Neuroticism N than those born during autumn, who
again scored significantly higher than those born during summer. The female subjects (N = 373) born during
winter or summer scored significantly higher on N than those born during spring. With respect to
Extraversion E, males and females born during autumn scored significantly higher than those born during
summer.
A series of more recent and large-scale studies (Chotai et al., 2001, Chotai et al., 2002 and Chotai et al.,
2003) used the TCI to measure personality, in order to discover differences in Novelty Seeking (NS) as a
function of date of birth. These studies show that younger subjects (below the age of 25) born during winter
(October–January/March) are in general significantly more likely to score high on NS, than subjects born
during the rest of the year (Chotai et al., 2002 and Chotai et al., 2003). However, for subjects above the age
of 25, the picture is reversed. In general, subjects born during winter show lower NS scores than subjects
born during the rest of the year or during spring only (February–April). (A certain overlap between some
winter and spring months could be noted only in this presentation of the literature and is due to the
summarizing nature of the present review) (Chotai et al., 2001 and Chotai et al., 2003). However, the
inverted relationship was more pronounced in females. Furthermore, the three studies by Chotai and
colleagues found that older males born during winter scored significantly lower on Persistence (PS) than
others (Chotai et al., 2001); and that younger subjects born during spring scored significantly lower on Self
Directedness (SD) than others (Chotai et al., 2002); and lastly that subjects born during winter scored
significantly higher on Harm Avoidance (HA) than others (Chotai et al., 2003).
Joinson and Nettle (2005) tested 448 subjects with a measure related to NS, namely Zuckerman’s Sensation
Seeking (SS) scale, and found that subjects aged 20–45 born during October–March scored significantly
higher on SS than others, while subjects aged 46–69 and born during October–March scored lower than
subjects born during the rest of the year.
All together the results suggest that there are individual differences in NS or SS or E as a function of month
or season of birth, and that they vary as a function of age and gender. The present study operates with
Eysenckian personality dimensions (EPQ), and can therefore approach the alleged relationship using
alternative personality scales to test whether findings are valid across instruments. The EPQ factors have
been found to be related to the TCI and ZKPQ from the Zuckerman and Kuhlman’s Personality Questionnaire
(see Zuckerman & Cloninger, 1996). Based on the positive correlations between Novelty Seeking,
Psychoticism (P), and Extraversion (E) we expected to find differences in E and P as a function of date of
birth. Other TCI factors, which have also been found to be associated with date of birth, are also related to
the EPQ. For instance, Persistence is negatively related to Psychoticism; Self Directedness is related
negatively to Psychoticism and Neuroticism. Finally, Harm Avoidance is negatively related to Extraversion
and positively to Neuroticism (Zuckerman & Cloninger, 1996). Based on the previous findings and presuming
that the instruments applied relate to Eysenck’s factors, it seems reasonable to expect that the present
study will confirm a relationship between date of birth and individual differences in personality.
1.3. Astrology
Several reviews of the literature on astrology (Dean et al., 1997 and Eysenck and Nias, 1982) show, in
general, little support for any claim of an effect of astrology. As highlighted by Dean et al. (1997), the effect
sizes of astrologer’s judgment amount to no more than 0.05, indicating very little practical relevance of
astrology. When astrological effects are in fact observed, they usually can be explained better by
non-astrological factors like the Barnum effect (i.e. the “…tendency for people to identify with personality
descriptions of a general and vague nature…”) or by acquaintance with Sun Signs and so on (Eysenck &
Nias, 1982, p. 43). More recently, Clarke, Gabriels, and Barnes (1996) conducted a study on the effect of
astrology in a sample of 190 subjects, testing two hypotheses. First, subjects born with the sun, moon
and/or ascendant in positive signs (or the masculine gender) will be more extraverted than subjects born with
these planets in the negative signs (feminine gender). Second, subjects born with the three planets in water
signs will be more emotional than subjects born in non-water signs (confer with Table 1 showing which Sun
Signs correspond to which Elements and astrological gender). Several t-tests indicated that subjects born
with the sun and the moon in positive signs (masculine gender) were in fact more extraverted than subjects
born with the sun and moon in negative signs. However, the significant p-values (about 0.03) would loose
their significance had the authors used the Bonferroni correction to compensate for multiple testing.
Table 1.
Translation of Sun Signs to Elements and gender
Sun Sign From (dd-mm) To (dd-mm) Element Gender
Aries 22-03 18-04 Fire Masculine
Taurus 22-04 19-05 Earth Feminine
Gemini 23-05 19-06 Air Masculine
Cancer 23-06 20-07 Water Feminine
Leo 24-07 21-08 Fire Masculine
Virgo 25-08 21-09 Earth Feminine
Libra 25-09 21-10 Air Masculine
Scorpio 25-10 20-11 Water Feminine
Sagittarius 24-11 19-12 Fire Masculine
Capricorn 23-12 18-01 Earth Feminine
Aquarious 22-01 17-02 Air Masculine
Sun Sign From (dd-mm) To (dd-mm) Element Gender
Pisces 20-02 18-03 Water Feminine
Based on these results we did not expect to find relevant relationships between astrology (Sun Signs,
Elements and astrological gender) and individual differences in general intelligence and personality.
2. Methodology
2.1. Subjects
We drew subjects from two sources. First, archival data from the Vietnam Experience Study (VES) were
kindly provided by Centers for Disease Control, 1988 and Centers for Disease Control, 1989. The purpose of
the VES study (to assess possible long term effect of military service for male veterans), the subjects
(N = 4462) and the test instruments used have been described in details elsewhere (Centers for Disease
Control, 1988, Centers for Disease Control, 1989, Nyborg and Jensen, 2000 and Nyborg and Jensen, 2001).
The VES sample is fairly representative of the US male population with respect to education, income,
occupation, and race. However, subjects scoring below the 10th percentile in the pre-induction cognitive
aptitude test were excluded, in accordance with a US Congress mandate, and this obviously truncates the
lower-end tail of the ability distribution. For the present purpose we included a total of 4321 middle-aged male
subjects in the analysis of month of birth and season of birth (see below). The veterans were inducted during
1965–71 (mean age = 19.92; SD = 1.72) and re-tested in 1985–86 (at mean age = 38.35; SD = 2.52) with a
mean testing (span = 17.90; SD = 1.86). Intelligence was measured twice—at induction and during re-testing,
whereas personality was monitored only at retesting.
Second, further data was drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 (NLSY1979; NLSY1979
User’s Guide, 2004). The purpose of this study, the subjects, and the instruments used have been
described elsewhere (Evans, 1999 and Legree et al., 1996). The sample comprised of 11,448 young adult
subjects (male N = 5749, female N = 5699). Age ranged between 15 and 24 years (mean age = 19.6;
SD = 2.26).
2.2. Instruments
2.2.1. The VES study
2.2.1.1. Intelligence
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted on 19 cognitive variables (Grooved Pegboard Test, left
and right hand; Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test; Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Drawing, direct copy,
immediate recall and delayed recall; Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, general information and
block design; Word List Generation Test; Wisconsin Card Sort Test; Wide Range Achievement Test;
California Verbal Learning Test; Army Classification Battery, verbal and arithmetic reasoning, administrated
twice; Pattern Analysis Test; General Information Test; Armed Forces Qualification Test).
The First Principal Component (PC1) was extracted to reflect general intelligence, and the g factor scores
were used to estimate individual ability level.
2.2.1.2. Personality
The VES database also contained clinical MMPI-II data. Following the guidelines by Gentry, Wakefield, and
Friedman (1985) we derived the four Eysenckian Personality dimensions: Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E),
Neuroticism (N), and Social Desirability (L: Lie scale). The reliabilities of the scales were: P (
α
= 0.74), E
(
α
= 0.60) and N (
α
= 0.92). These values are acceptable, but the L (
α
= 0.32) reliability was too low. Thus,
L scale results must be interpreted with caution.
2.2.1.3. Date of birth (VES)
Five different indicators of date of birth were computed based on the birth dates of the subjects:
(a) Month of Birth: The month during which the subject was born (January, February, etc.).
(b) Season of Birth: Seasons of birth was somewhat rather arbitrary defined as: Spring (March–May),
Summer (June–August), Fall (September–November) and Winter (December–February).
(c) Extended Winter vs. Summer: A cosinur analysis by Chotai et al., 2002 and Chotai et al., 2003
investigated whether any systematic fluctuations could be fitted to a cosines curve (). The results
suggested systematic cosines fluctuations from “Extended Winter” (October–March) to “Extended Summer”
(April–September). Based on these findings it was decided to construct two groups (Extended
Winter/Summer) in order to investigate any seasonal differences based on this division of the year obtained
from Chotai et al., 2002 and Chotai et al., 2003 studies.
(d) Extended Spring vs. Fall: Chotai et al. (2003) further suggest that the months January–June (Extended
Spring) could be different from July–December (Extended Fall).
(e) Sun Sign: The astrological Sun Sign is the commonly known star sign based on the place of the sun in
relation to the date of birth of the subject. This Sun Sign is commonly associated with different attributes for
different signs (Eysenck & Nias, 1982, for details). Where one Sun Sign stops and another starts is not
completely agreed upon among astrologers, due to slightly different methods of estimating an individual Sun
Sign. This leads to minor differences in the dates used to incorporate people into certain Sun Signs, typically
diverging by 1 day across methods. In order not to risk inclusion of subjects in an incorrect Sun Sign group,
it was decided to exclude subjects born on the day, the day before, and the day after any of these division
points provided by the two methods. This resulted in a gap of ca. 2–3 days around a division point from
which subjects were excluded (see Table 1 for illustration). This conservative categorisation reduced the
number of subjects for Sun Signs analysis from 4321 to 4054.
(f) Sun Sign associated with an Element (i.e. fire, water, air, and earth): Subjects assigned to a Sun Sign
group were also assigned to an Element group (see Table 1 for details).
(g) Sun Sign associated with astrological gender (i.e. masculine/feminine): Subjects assigned to a sun sign
group were also assigned to a gender group (see Table 1 for elaborations).
2.2.2. The NLSY1979 study
2.2.2.1. Intelligence
A Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) was conducted on the 10 subtests of the Armed Services Vocational
Aptitude Battery (ASVAB): (General Science; Arithmetic Reasoning; Word Knowledge; Paragraphs
Comprehension; Numerical Operations; Coding Speed; Automobile and Shop Information; Mathematics
Knowledge; Mechanical Comprehension; Electronics Information). The first Principal Axis Factor (PAF1) was
applied to derive general intelligence, g, and the g factor scores were then used as an estimate of individual
g.
2.2.2.2. Personality
We did not have access to personality data for NLSY1979 subjects.
2.2.2.3. Date of birth (NLSY1979)
As NLSY1979 study only provides the month of birth of the subjects, we were restricted to perform analyses
based on month of birth, season of birth, Extended Spring vs. Fall, and Extended Winter vs. Summer.
2.3. Statistical evaluation
For all analyses the conventional alpha value of 0.05 (two tailed) was used.
2.3.1. The VES study
The four personality factors and the PC1 scores were entered one by one as the dependent variables in an
ANCOVA design, while controlling for the remaining four variables and the chronological age of the subjects.
The categorical predictor variables were the seven indicators of date of birth, namely month of birth (12
groups), season of birth (four groups), Extended Spring vs. Fall (two groups), Extended Summer vs. Winter
(two groups), Sun Sign (12 groups), Elements (four groups), and astrological gender (two groups). This
resulted in a total of seven times five ANCOVA’s.
2.3.2. The NLSY1979 study
Only four ANCOVA’s were performed with the PAF1 score as the dependent variable and month of birth,
season of birth, Extended Spring vs. Fall, Extended Summer vs. Winter served as categorical predictor
variables while controlling for age.
3. Results
Due to the space limitation only figures for the relationship between the dependent variable (personality and
general intelligence) and month of birth are reported, since the other results are categorizations of these,
and can accordingly to some extent be derived from these. Furthermore, all significant relationships are also
reported.
3.1. The VES study
As can be seen from Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4, Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, out of 35 analyses only one reached the
specified level of significance (see Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4, Fig. 5 and Fig. 6). This was for Extended
Spring vs. Fall (Fig. 6), but the difference amounted to less than one IQ point in favour of subjects born in
the Extended Fall. No significant relationships could be observed between date of birth and personality. A
simple eye-ball inspection of the five graphs for month of birth did not suggest any systematic relationship
besides the ones already tested.
Display Full Size version of this image (14K)
Fig. 1. Predicting general intelligence g (PC1) from month of birth.
Display Full Size version of this image (48K)
Fig. 2. Predicting Psychoticism (P) from month of birth.
Display Full Size version of this image (52K)
Fig. 3. Predicting Extraversion (E) from month of birth.
Display Full Size version of this image (51K)
Fig. 4. Predicting Neuroticism (N) from month of birth.
Display Full Size version of this image (49K)
Fig. 5. Predicting Social Desirability (Lie score, L) from month of birth.
Display Full Size version of this image (40K)
Fig. 6. Predicting general intelligence g (PC1) from Extended Spring vs. Fall.
It was not possible to conduct separate analyses for sex as the VES database did not contain female data.
3.2. The NLSY1979 study
From the four analyses (see Fig. 7, Fig. 8 and Fig. 9), the relationship between month of birth and PAF1
score came close to significance (p 0.08), whereas the relationship between PAF1 score and season of
birth reached significance (p < 0.025) as well as for Extended Spring vs. Fall (p < 0.002). Fig. 8 illustrates
that subjects born during spring obtained higher g than subjects born during fall. Subjects born during winter
or summer seem to score closer too, but less than subjects born during spring. Fig. 8 also shows that the
relationship is very modest (less than one IQ point) even if statistically significant. These results are
corroborated by the Extended Spring vs. Fall results, where subjects born during the Extended Spring score
somewhat higher g (but less than one IQ equivalent point). A simple eye-ball inspection of the graph for
month of birth did not suggest any systematic relationship besides the ones already seen.
Display Full Size version of this image (44K)
Fig. 7. Predicting general intelligence g (PAF1) from month of birth.
Display Full Size version of this image (42K)
Fig. 8. Predicting general intelligence g (PAF1) from season of birth.
Display Full Size version of this image (35K)
Fig. 9. Predicting general intelligence g (PAF1) from Extended Spring vs. Fall.
Conducting the analyses separately for gender showed that the ANCOVA for month of birth and PAF1 was
significant for males (p < 0.05) but not for females (p > 0.1). This pattern is also found when substituting
month of birth by season of birth. The ANCOVA reached significance (p < 0.001) for males but not for
females (p > 0.1). The Extended Spring vs. Fall analysis showed the same pattern, where the relationship
was significant for males (p < 0.006) but not for females (p < 0.1). Apparently the overall relationship
between season of birth and Extended Spring vs. Fall is mediated by gender.
4. Discussion
The large-scale analyses of the VES data show no relationships between date of birth and personality as
defined by the four Eysenckian personality dimensions. Given the rather liberal level of significance used in
relation to the numerous analyses performed, it is rather surprising not to find at least one spurious
relationship. Based on the research literature we expected to find at least some differences in personality as
a function of date of birth.
The reason for the discrepancy is unknown. The small effect sizes could be a factor, but the present
samples are large enough to trace even small effects. Another reason could be the age of our subjects.
Perhaps personality differs over time, and one could then argue that our middle-aged “personality” sample is
at a point where the differences in personality as a function of date of birth are shifting and therefore
differences will be minimal. However, there is consensus that personality tends to be stable over life-span;
but it cannot be excluded that a larger age span or different age categories than in the present study might
have provided different results. Moreover, as argued by a reviewer, it cannot be ruled out that the selection
bias inherent in this sample, i.e. all armed service veterans, could have modified the effect of date of birth.
However, multiple socio-economic indicators demonstrated that veterans who had served in Vietnam about
20 years later in general fared as well in society as those who did service elsewhere at the same time, and
that both groups distributed themselves socio-economically as expected for the general population (Centers
for Disease Control, 1988 and Centers for Disease Control, 1989). Another argument was raised by a
reviewer: Perhaps years of military service and possible war experiences could affect the personality of the
subjects? Since the personality measures were collected during the re-testing phase in 1985/86 at
middle-age, one cannot rule out that an effect of date of birth has been eliminated on this account. In sum,
the selection bias of the present sample was probably lighter than that of most college samples typically
investigated, and no serious personality bias could be traced.
With respect to general intelligence we found evidence that subjects born during the Extended Fall from
June–December are slightly more intelligent (less one IQ point) than subjects born during the Extended
Spring. However, these results contrast the findings in NLSY1979 database, which showed approximately
the same difference but in the opposite direction. However, NLSY1979 findings dovetail with the research
literature and are therefore more likely to be correct. The question is, however, whether the findings are solid
and whether the relationship between date of birth and general intelligence may be mediated by the age of
the subjects as perhaps for personality. It is even possible both findings are artefacts of using rather liberal
p-values in the light of the number of analyses performed and the huge sample size. When the p-values are
subjected to the Bonferroni correction for 39 analyses, then no significant results survive. In any case, even
if the differences are, in fact, valid, the effect size is far too low to be of any practical relevance.
Our findings on astrology concord in general with the reviews of the research literature (Dean et al., 1997
and Eysenck and Nias, 1982). In fairness, the present study cannot falsify astrology at large since the
position of planets other than the sun might also have an effect. However, as pointed out by Eysenck and
Nias (1982, p. 31 and 49) if there is some truth to astrology then some general effects of prominent
astrological factors like Sun Signs should be detectable using large enough samples. The present
large-scale study certainly found no independent effects of Sun Signs, Elements, or gender, and thus yields
no support for the common claims of astrology.
References
Bibby et al., 1996 P.A. Bibby, S.J. Lamb, G. Leyden and D. Wood, Season of birth and gender effects in
children attending moderate learning difficulty schools, British Journal of Educational Psychology 66 (1996),
pp. 159–168. View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (2)
Centers for Disease Control, 1988 Centers for Disease Control, Health status of Vietnam veterans, Journal
of the American Medical Association 259 (1988), pp. 2701–2719.
Centers for Disease Control, 1989 Centers for Disease Control, Health status of Vietnam veterans: Vol. IV.
Psychological and neuropsychological evaluation, Center for Environmental Health and Injury Control,
Atlanta, Georgia (1989).
Chichilenko and Barbarash, 2001 M.V. Chichilenko and N.A. Barbarash, Effect of the season of birth on
personality, health, and emotional stress in adolescents, Human Physiology 27 (2001), pp. 507–509. Full
Text via CrossRef
Chotai et al., 2001 J. Chotai, T. Forsgren, L. Nilsson and R. Adolfsson, Season of birth variations in the
temperament and character inventory of personality in a general population, Neuropsychobiology 44 (2001),
pp. 19–26. Full Text via CrossRef | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (26)
Chotai et al., 2002 J. Chotai, M. Jonasson, B. Hägglöf and R. Adolfsson, The temperament scale of novelty
seeking in adolescents show an association with season of birth opposite to that in adults, Psychiatry
Research 111 (2002), pp. 45–54. SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (209 K) | View Record in Scopus |
Cited By in Scopus (12)
Chotai et al., 2003 J. Chotai, M. Lundberg and R. Adolfsson, Variations in personality traits among
adolescents and adults according to their season of birth in the general population: further evidence,
Personality and Individual Differences 35 (2003), pp. 897–908. SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (209
K) | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (5)
Clarke et al., 1996 D. Clarke, T. Gabriels and J. Barnes, Astrological sign as determinants of extroversion
and emotionality: an empirical study, The Journal of Psychology 130 (1996), pp. 131–140. View Record in
Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (3)
Dean et al., 1997 G.A. Dean, D.K.B. Nias and C.C. French, Graphology, astrology, and parapsychology. In:
H. Nyborg, Editor, The scientific study of human nature: Tribute to Hans J. Eysenck at eighty, Pergamon:
Elsevier Science Ltd., Oxford, England (1997), pp. 511–542.
Evans, 1999 M.G. Evans, On the asymmetry of g, Psychological Reports 85 (1999), pp. 1059–1069. Full
Text via CrossRef | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (10)
Eysenck, 1995 H.J. Eysenck, Genius: The natural history of creativity, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge (1995).
Eysenck and Nias, 1982 H.J. Eysenck and D.K. Nias, Astrology: Science or superstition?, Maurice Temple
Smith Ltd, London, England (1982).
Forlano and Ehrlich, 1941 G. Forlano and V.Z. Ehrlich, Month and season of birth in relation to intelligence,
introversion–extroversion, and inferiority feelings, Journal of Educational Psychology 32 (1941), pp. 1–12.
Abstract | Full Text via CrossRef
Gentry et al., 1985 T.A. Gentry, J.A. Wakefield and A.F. Friedman, MMPI scales for measuring Eysenck‘s
factors, Journal of Personality Research 49 (1985), pp. 146–149. Full Text via CrossRef
Gupta, 1992 S. Gupta, Season of birth in relation to personality and blood groups, Personality and Individual
Differences 13 (1992), pp. 631–633. Abstract | Abstract + References | PDF (226 K)
Joinson and Nettle, 2005 C. Joinson and D. Nettle, Season of birth variation in sensation seeking in an adult
population, Personality and Individual Differences 38 (2005), pp. 859–870. SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links |
PDF (317 K) | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (2)
Legree et al., 1996 P.J. Legree, M.E. Pifer and F.C. Grafton, Correlations among cognitive abilities are lower
for higher ability groups, Intelligence 23 (1996), pp. 45–57. Abstract | PDF (588 K) | View Record in Scopus |
Cited By in Scopus (29)
NLSY1979 User’s Guide, 2004 NLSY1979 User’s guide: A guide to the 1979–2002 National Longitudinal
Study of Youth Data (2004). Prepared for the US Department of Labor by Center for Human Resource
Research. The Ohio State University Columbus, OH.
Nyborg and Jensen, 2000 H. Nyborg and A.R. Jensen, Black–white differences on various psychometric
tests: Spearman’s hypothesis tested on American armed services veterans, Personality and Individual
Differences 28 (2000), pp. 593–599. SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (108 K) | View Record in Scopus
| Cited By in Scopus (19)
Nyborg and Jensen, 2001 H. Nyborg and A.R. Jensen, Occupation and income related to psychometric g,
Intelligence 29 (2001), pp. 45–55. SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (143 K) | Full Text via CrossRef |
View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (8)
Pintner and Forlano, 1943 R. Pintner and G. Forlano, Season of birth and mental differences, Psychological
Bulletin 40 (1943), pp. 25–35. Abstract | Full Text via CrossRef
Zuckerman and Cloninger, 1996 M. Zuckerman and C.R. Cloninger, Relationships between Cloninger’s,
Zuckerman’s, and Eysenck’s dimensions of personality, Personality and Individual Differences 21 (1996), pp.
283–385.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 29922400.
Personality and Individual Differences
Volume 40, Issue 7, May 2006, Pages 1349-1362
Home Browse Search My Settings Alerts Help
About ScienceDirect | Contact Us | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ScienceDirect® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V.
... To do so, we examine how people's perception and trust in AI predictions may correlate with other irrational behaviors, such as belief in astrology. This research question is particularly timely and relevant given the recent surge in popularity of astrology, especially among Millennials and Gen Z [25,26], despite the lack of empirical evidence supporting its validity [27,28]. A recent consumer survey of over 2000 people in the US revealed that about a third of Millennials and a quarter of Gen Z have made financial decisions based on their horoscope [29]. ...
Preprint
Full-text available
This thesis investigates the psychological factors that influence belief in AI predictions, comparing them to belief in astrology- and personality-based predictions, and examines the "personal validation effect" in the context of AI, particularly with Large Language Models (LLMs). Through two interconnected studies involving 238 participants, the first study explores how cognitive style, paranormal beliefs, AI attitudes, and personality traits impact perceptions of the validity, reliability, usefulness, and personalization of predictions from different sources. The study finds a positive correlation between belief in AI predictions and belief in astrology- and personality-based predictions, highlighting a "rational superstition" phenomenon where belief is more influenced by mental heuristics and intuition than by critical evaluation. Interestingly, cognitive style did not significantly affect belief in predictions, while paranormal beliefs, positive AI attitudes, and conscientiousness played significant roles. The second study reveals that positive predictions are perceived as significantly more valid, personalized, reliable, and useful than negative ones, emphasizing the strong influence of prediction valence on user perceptions. This underscores the need for AI systems to manage user expectations and foster balanced trust. The thesis concludes with a proposal for future research on how belief in AI predictions influences actual user behavior, exploring it through the lens of self-fulfilling prophecy. Overall, this thesis enhances understanding of human-AI interaction and provides insights for developing AI systems across various applications.
... To do so, we examine how people's perception and trust in AI predictions may correlate with other irrational behaviors, such as belief in astrology. This research question is particularly timely and relevant given the recent surge in popularity of astrology, especially among Millennials and Gen Z [24,25], despite the lack of empirical evidence supporting its validity [26,27]. A recent consumer survey of over 2000 people in the US revealed that about a third of Millennials and a quarter of Gen Z have made financial decisions based on their horoscope [28]. ...
Preprint
Full-text available
This study investigates psychological factors influencing belief in AI predictions about personal behavior, comparing it to belief in astrology and personality-based predictions. Through an experiment with 238 participants, we examined how cognitive style, paranormal beliefs, AI attitudes, personality traits, and other factors affect perceived validity, reliability, usefulness, and personalization of predictions from different sources. Our findings reveal that belief in AI predictions is positively correlated with belief in predictions based on astrology and personality psychology. Notably, paranormal beliefs and positive AI attitudes significantly increased perceived validity, reliability, usefulness, and personalization of AI predictions. Conscientiousness was negatively correlated with belief in predictions across all sources, and interest in the prediction topic increased believability across predictions. Surprisingly, cognitive style did not significantly influence belief in predictions. These results highlight the "rational superstition" phenomenon in AI, where belief is driven more by mental heuristics and intuition than critical evaluation. We discuss implications for designing AI systems and communication strategies that foster appropriate trust and skepticism. This research contributes to our understanding of the psychology of human-AI interaction and offers insights for the design and deployment of AI systems.
... As an example, homeopathy and astrology are evaluable and not just evaluable. They have been demonstrated not to work (see, e.g., Hartmann et al., 2006;Grimes, 2012). Yet, a proponent of epistemic scientism would definitely not want to take them as epistemically acceptable. ...
Article
Full-text available
This paper argues that the proponents of epistemological scientism must take some stand on scientific methodology. The supporters of scientism cannot simply defer to the social organisation of science because the social processes themselves must meet some methodological criteria. Among such criteria is epistemic evaluability, which demands intersubjective access to reasons. We derive twelve theses outlining some implications of epistemic evaluability. Evaluability can support weak and broad variants of epistemological scientism, which state that sciences, broadly construed, are the best sources of knowledge or some other epistemic goods. Since humanities and social sciences produce epistemically evaluable results, narrow types of scientism that take only natural sciences as sources of knowledge require additional argumentation in their support. Strong scientism, which takes sciences as the only source of knowledge, also needs to appeal to some further principles since evaluability is not an all-or-nothing affair.
... It has been described as a pseudoscience, with little evidence for the existence of relevant relationships between zodiac sign and individual personality traits. 39 The occasional associations in personality between zodiac signs observed in studies 30,40 are thought likely to be accounted for by self-attributions, with individuals believing in astrology attributing personality traits consistent with their zodiac sign to themselves. 1 Nevertheless, there is no point carping about it, or perching on the fence, and having had the opportunity to mullet over the current study did reveal some significant findings, which cod be of importance to both physicians and sturgeons. ...
Article
Aim: There are 12 signs of the zodiac, each attributed with its own specific personality traits, desires and attitudes. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of zodiac sign on patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS) following primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Method: Patients undergoing primary TKA during a 2-year period (January 2019 to December 2020) were identified retrospectively. Patient demographics, Oxford Knee Score (OKS), EuroQol 5-dimension (EQ-5D) (baseline, 1 and 2 years) and patient satisfaction scores (1 and 2 years) were collected. Each patient's zodiac sign was assigned from their date of birth. Results: There were 509 patients (228 males [44.8%] and 281 females [55.2%]) with a mean age of 70.9 years and a mean BMI of 30.3. There were no significant differences in gender (p=0.712), age (p=0.088), BMI (p=0.660), or pre-operative OKS (p=0.539). Aries and Gemini (0.366) had the worst and Pisces the best (0.595) pre-operative EQ-5D scores (p=0.038). When adjusting for confounding, Aries (p=0.031) had a greater improvement in EQ-5D at 1 year, although this was not maintained at 2 years. When adjusting for confounding, Pisceans had significantly less of an improvement in OKS at both 1 (p=0.022) and 2 years (p=0.042) and also had a significantly lower risk of satisfaction at 2 years (odds ratio 0.41, p=0.043). Conclusion: Zodiac sign was associated with outcome following TKA. Pisceans had the best pre-operative EQ-5D scores, but the least improvement in the post-operative joint specific score (OKS) and were less likely to be satisfied, despite achieving an equal improvement in their health-related quality of life (EQ-5D). Aries started with the lowest pre-operative EQ-5D scores but achieved the best scores at 1 year. Our study shows that an individual's zodiac sign may serve as a useful predictive factor for functional outcomes and satisfaction following TKA. However, our findings are the result of multiple testing in a large dataset following a data trawl, and correlation does not necessarily equal causation even in a real-world registry.
... Burke, 2012;Laux, 2008). Zumeist werden keine Zusammenhänge festgestellt und Befunde, die Unterschiede ausmachen, als Artefakte beschrieben (Hartmann et al., 2006;Wunder, 2003). Bei Pawlik und Buse (1979;Laux, 2008) zeigten sich hingegen bei Proband*innen, die an den Einfluss von Sternzeichen glaubten, Zusammenhänge zwischen Sternzeichen und Persönlichkeitseigenschaften. ...
Book
Full-text available
In diesem Open-Access-Buch geht es um Kompetenzerwartungen von Lernenden an Lehrpersonen und deren Bedeutung für die Lehr-Lern-Interaktion. Die Lehr-Lern-Interaktion ist ein aufeinander bezogenes Handeln von mindestens einer Lehrperson sowie einer lernenden Person und kann durch verschiedene Phänomene der sozialen Wahrnehmung und Kognition beeinflusst werden – beispielsweise durch Erwartungen. In einigen Untersuchungen zu interpersonalen Erwartungseffekten in der Lehr-Lern-Interaktion stehen die Lehrendenerwartungen an Lernende im Fokus, in anderen die Lernendenerwartungen an Lehrende – zumeist mit ihren Einflüssen auf das Erleben und Verhalten der Lernenden. Marcel Hackbart konzipiert auf Basis des transaktionalen Modells der Lehr-Lern-Interaktion vier aufeinander aufbauende Studien zu Kompetenzerwartungen von Lernenden an Lehrpersonen. Die Ergebnisse der Studien zeigen, dass die Lernendenkompetenzerwartungen an Lehrpersonen einen Einfluss auf die Interaktionsgestaltungen im Lehr-Lern-Kontext haben. Die Effekte auf die Lernenden selbst sind dabei, insbesondere auf Gruppenebene, größer als die Einflüsse auf das Erleben und Verhalten von Lehrpersonen.
... Mustafa, Olgun & Taylan (2011) inspected the effect of astrology on young customer behaviours, the study was performed on 445 young consumers and concluded that positions of the different planets at the birth time may affect people's behaviour in particular market situation. Although, there were no afrmations found which validate the relationships between date of birth and individual differences in personality and general intelligence (Hartmann, Reuter, & Nyborg, 2006). Modern personality descriptions of odd-number astrological Sun Sign found to be more favourable than description of even-number Sun signs. ...
... [8] Exaggerated beliefs and ideas have found their place in people's communications and eventually turn into strong beliefs and can even affect health behaviors. [9] Researchers emphasize how beliefs become more important in times of illness than at any other point in life and contribute to the acceptance of the meaning of illness. [10] A study in 2009 showed that, in their experience of cancer, some of the participants did not believe in the abnormal division of cells or any scientific explanations and instead believed in the role of luck and superstitions. ...
Article
Full-text available
Concept exploration and development of superstition is the aim of this research. Superstition is a complex concept, needs to be clarity, removes it from its mundane state, and gives it a scientific richness. To use a list of questions extracted from a review of the literature to analyze, develop, and explore superstition. It was assessed according to studies conducted in three fields sociology, psychology, and nursing. The maturity of the concept was determined in four areas, epistemology, practicability, semantics, and deduction/logic. Nurses must discover people's beliefs and superstitions. Although the concept of superstition is commonly used, many of its features and aspects were still unclear.
Article
Full-text available
This study aimed to discover and describe the truth behind superstitious beliefs. Also, to develop a boarder measure of belief that encompasses much wider, and much more diverse, forms of superstitions. There is a need for a more fine-grained understanding of the psychological functions of different superstition types, beginning with the fundamental positive versus negative distinction. It is an research used a qualitative inspired by an indigenous research methodology, pannakisarsarita. Based on the findings, the following conclusions are derived from this study. It has shown that despite a city's high level of urbanization, its citizens just cannot give up the long-standing customs they have acquired from their ancestors and forefathers. Some superstitious beliefs still exist. There are superstitious beliefs in the terms of the following: a. burial, b. healing c. harvesting d. planting and e. marriage. These beliefs guided their lives in ancient times and even today. While superstitious Beliefs of the participants affect them in terms of health, decision, and life It heals us if we believe: Parents 'decision, Grand-parents' decisions, Peers' decisions, and Faith Decisions. The Sta Cruz cultural esteem and high reverence for the deceased, marriage, planting and harvesting, and even faith healing are examples of these myths and practices. In light of the findings and conclusions of the study, the following recommendations are forwarded: The study suggests that faith healers can serve as excellent role models for secondary prevention, which involves early diagnosis and prompt treatment if properly advised to refer patients on time while maintaining their healing process, should only be non-harmful. Continue to carry out our traditions and custom regarding superstitious as part of our beliefs.
Chapter
Dieses Kapitel befasst sich mit grundlegenden Anforderungen an diagnostische Instrumente. Der Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf psychologischen Tests. Neben einer Definition und beispielhaften Darstellungen psychologischer Tests werden Kernannahmen des Messens sowie der Klassischen Testtheorie und von Item-Response-Theorien skizziert. Wesentliche Strategien und Schritte der Testkonstruktion werden eingeführt. Schließlich erfolgt eine Betrachtung wesentlicher Testgütekriterien.
Article
In this paper the strength of general intelligence at different levels of g is explored. This represents a replication of 1996 work by Dreary, et al. using a very large sample of young persons. By examining differences in correlation between subscales and by undertaking a confirmatory factor analysis of a standard ability measure, the Armed Services Vocational Ability Battery, at high and low levels of g (n = c. 600 at each level), it is shown that at lower levels of g the factor structure is quite similar to, although not as well defined as, the factor structure for the complete sample, that is, a single general factor; however, at higher levels of g, the factor structure is not as clear-cut. The differences in mean correlations between the high and low intelligence groups ranged from .12 to .46 depending on the specific analysis. We established the level of g in three different ways using different indicators of g with different strengths and weaknesses. Results of all three analyses converged. The results imply that people with high intelligence demonstrate this in quite different ways, while those with low g have intellectual deficits in all domains of intelligence. The dominance of g in the factor structure reflects this similarity of scores at the low end of the set of abilities. The prevalence of specific abilities is due to the variety of ways in which people can demonstrate high ability. One can visualize this in three dimensions by imagining the various abilities as flowers arranged in a narrow vase - at the bottom they are bound together tightly, at the top they spread out broadly.
Article
Astrological theories assume a link between an individual's personality traits and the positions of the sun, moon, and planets in the zodiac at the moment of birth. Previous research has examined the relation of the sun sign to personality traits, but moon and ascendant signs have not been studied in relation to personality traits. The dominance effect of the sun on men and the moon on women has also not been empirically researched. Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) scores on extroversion and emotionality were obtained from 190 first-year university students. Date, time, and location of birth were requested, to establish the positions of the sun, moon, and ascendant in positive, negative, and water signs for each individual. Multiple t tests showed a significantly greater mean extroversion score for the group with both the sun and the moon in positive signs than for the group with both in negative signs. No other differences in means were significant. The findings generally did not support theories claiming that tendencies toward extroversion and emotionality are determined by astrological signs.
Article
Each chapter of this tribute to H. J. Eysenck on the occasion of his 80th birthday describes first Eysenck's contribution to a particular topic then what research has developed from it, what kinds of amendments, modifications or additions to his work are appropriate, and finally thoughts about the future of the field. This book intends to be of interest to a wide audience of researchers working in fields such as clinical, social, experimental, educational, medical, industrial and cognitive psychology. It will also be of relevance to psychiatrists, psychotherapists, social workers and counsellors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Results based on 7,897 adolescents suggest that those born in the spring were on the average brighter than those born in winter; those born during cold seasons seemed to be more extraverted and tended somewhat less to exhibit feelings of inferiority. Bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
This is a review of studies from 1929 to the present concerned with the relation of intelligence scores to season of birth. The studies are based on large numbers of subjects, usually in the thousands. The subjects in most studies are children, in one they are adult men, and in two college students. There is a strong suggestion of slightly lower mean intelligence for individuals born in the winter-autumn half of the year, the colder-darker months, than for individuals born in the spring-summer half of the year, the warmer-lighter months. While the difference is generally slight and in many cases well below the conventional limits of significance, it is in some cases well above these limits. Both exogenous and endogenous theories are suggested in explanation of the phenomenon. The phenomenon is seen as merely one aspect of the seasonal fluctuations of numerous physical, mental, and sociological factors. Suggestions are made for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Compared the direct equivalence of C. R. Cloninger's (see record 1988-01507-001) 7-factor and M. Zuckerman's (1991) 5-factor and H. J. Eysenck's (1967) 3-factor psychobiological models of personality. 207 college students were administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire—Revised (EPQ-R), the Personality Questionnaire (PQ), and the 125 item Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Three of the scales in the TCI and PQ correlate at or above 0.60, indicating near-equivalence. Some of the other scales show secondary correlations with PQ scales, but at considerably lower convergent correlations than previously mentioned. In contrast to correlations between TCI and PQ, most of the TCI scale correlations were about the same for 2 of the 3 EPQ-R scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
The present investigation was designed to study the relationship of season of birth and the personality dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism, impulsiveness, venturesomeness, empathy and locus of control. One-way analysis of variance applied to the data clearly revealed that F-ratios for neuroticism, impulsiveness and venturesomeness were statistically reliable. In addition, a strong statistically significant association was found to exist between seasons of birth and blood groups as revealed by a chi-square test.