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Majority of Young American Adults Think Astrology Is a Science
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Americans have always had a strange fascination with astrology. First Lady Nancy Reagan famously employed the services of an astrologer after the assassination attempt on her husband. Now UPI reports that according to a new survey by the National Science Foundation, nearly half of all Americans say astrology is either 'very' or 'sort of' scientific. Younger respondents, in particular, were the least likely to regard astrology as unscientific, with 58% of 18 to 24 years olds saying that astrology is scientific (PDF). What's most alarming is that American attitudes about science are moving in the wrong direction. Skepticism of astrology hit an all-time high in 2004, when 66 percent of Americans said astrology was total nonsense. But each year, fewer and fewer respondents have dismissed the connections between star alignment and personality as bunk. Among respondents in the 25 — 44 age group 49% of respondents in the 2012 survey said astrology is either 'very scientific' or 'sort of scientific,' up from 36% in 2010. So what's behind this data? The lead author of the report chapter in question, public opinion specialist John Besley of Michigan State University, cautions that we should probably wait for further data 'to see if it's a real change' before speculating. But, he admits, the apparent increase in astrology belief 'popped out to me when I saw it.'"
Majority of Young American Adults Think a Comma is Nike's "Swoosh" Symbol.
The decrease in astrology's visibility (people no longer read magazines, and "horoscope blogs" don't seem to have become a thing) may just have led to most young people not having a clue and assuming astrology = astronomy.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
Explains the government we have.
If I was skimming a survey that asked about scientific topics I'd probably read "astrology" as "astronomy" by accident. I'd possibly even chalk it up to a typo and deliberately substitute the two. I'm reading the paper right now to see if they accounted for this.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
It's a science of extracting money from gullible people.
Personally, I'd much prefer a job as a veterinarian to one as a vegetarian.
I can imagine the signs held by those who want a job as a vegetarian though:
"Will work for no food!"
Start about 4 minutes in.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
There's prior evidence that higher education and intelligence levels lead to rejection of astrology. See http://www.unz.com/gnxp/the-less-intelligent-more-likely-to-accept-astrology-as-scientific/. However, astrology is more commonly believed on the left than on the right end of the political spectrum as measured by self-identified conservatives or liberals. See the prior link where about only 65% of liberals declare astrology to be not at all scientific as opposed to about 75% of conservatives.. (In general a lot of different pseudoscientific beliefs end up being more or less common on one end of the political spectrum, although these can change over time, such as anti-vaccination attitudes becoming more common on the right after the HPV vaccine came out.) The correlation is not that strong, but there has been a left-ward trend in the US in the last few years. It is possible that memetic drag has thus increased the belief in astrology.
that astrology is intended as nothing more than entertainment --- the ``forecasts'' in a given newspaper each day are chosen from a set of a number of different forecasts, each of which is intended to fill up a different amount of space, e.g., if newspaper A has 1/2 a page to allot to them, they use the 1/2pg. filler version, if newspaper B only sold a 1-col ad for the astrology page, then they use the 5/6pg. filler version.
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
or it might be a simple mixup between astrology and astronomy.
bickerdyke
We Virgos are sceptical about such things.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
For fuck's sake guys, there was so much more interesting information in that report and you went for the linkbait-iest piece of crap on the list. Have some fucking self respect. Check your sources. Be a goddamned editor. The rest of you: follow the link to the .pdf and read at least the
Highlights of the report. It's fascinating.
Majority of young Americans would like Beta, if they ever came here in the first place.
dammit `~My `keyboard is on` the fritz so` forgive random` quotes, apostrophes `and tildes. I tried to delete them but `the `backspace key also inserts them! Yay!
First ``they `say this:
"half of all Americans say astrology, the study of celestial bodies' purported influence on human behavior and worldly events, is either "very scientific" or "sort of scientific."
`An`d `then` t`hey` say `this:
"By contrast, 92 percent of the Chinese public think horoscopes are a bunch of baloney."
So `they used` two `different `words which mean two `different things but used them in `a `comparison as if they were the `same` thing.`Great reporting!
My guess is astrology sounds very close to astronomy in both spelling and pronunciation` so it is leading to confusion. I` read throug`h t`he` report ``but `the `problem is `no` exact sample `question `was given and we don't know how the people were asked. It simply `states that "Since 1979, surveys have `asked `Americans whether they view astrology as being scientific." `I `guess it `must read something `like this: "Do `you think `astrology is` a `science?" with` a few check `boxes under it with "not `at all" "sort of" or "very `scientific".
I `bet if they replaced astrology with horoscopes then we would `see `a completely dif`ferent `dataset`.
A non-vegetarian veterinarian is a job where you can still eat when your customers don't pay you.
Every day you hear about more things they are spotting in space, with bigger more powerful horoscopes they can see more exoplanets and stars etc. Considering how much our Curiosity alone has Discovered about the surface of Mars, it's not surprising Astrology is gaining a lot of credibility.
Astrology used to keep astronomers fed. And, the observations that used to accompany astrology became the basis for astronomical advances. As a proto-science, astrology has appeared in Jungian archetypal motifs in psychology as well as sharing vocabulary with astronomy and planetary science. There are connections between astrology and these sciences just as there are between alchemy and both chemistry and nuclear physics or between herbalism and pharmacology.
The results are there but the interpretation is flawed.
I'd be FAR more likely to believe US kids are stupid and confused 'astrology' with 'astronomy', than that they believe astrology is a science.
We were being given a college tour for one of our kids at a LEADING institution (retail price north of $50k/year) and the pretty young tour guide was showing us around, and identified one of the science buildings as "...and there's the building with various science classrooms including geology, biology, and astrology...", which prompted a sudden look up* by most of the male parents in the group, eye contact, and a shrug. I didn't notice a single mom or kid react.
*she was wearing yoga pants
-Styopa
This would be a reason to worry less if it were a single data point. But this sort of explanation doesn't help explain the apparent increase over time unless you think people are getting less careful about reading questions or using context recognition.
Others on this thread have mentioned that people may simply not be as familiar with astrology as they were in the past. If the percentage of 18-24 year old adults who even know what astrology is is dropping steadily, then the number of people who mistake astrology for astronomy would probably be steadily going up at a similar rate. If a survey was already focusing on scientific concepts, I could see myself confusing the terms. Although in the context of "Is astrology a science" I would probably notice the difference since why would anyone ask if astronomy is a science?
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
That's a pretty good observation.
On one hand, you have a set of "rational" social values regarding going to college, being a moral, law abiding person, working hard, etc. all leading to good outcomes and yet none of it seems true anymore -- the plutocracy steals with impunity, working hard doesn't produce any rewards, college leads to lifelong indebtedness, etc.
On the other, you have an economy that never seems to get better for anyone but the rich, an environment that at best produces strange weather and otherwise is nothing but bad news, never ending military conflicts, etc.
It does sound like a common pretext to abandon science and reason and escape into religion.
The Right tends to be more of a certain Christian belief that has a deep seated fear of 'new agey', 'spiritistic', 'occult' etc practices, whereas the left has the Christians who don't care about that kind of stuff, and the secularists who are every bit as irrational.
I've noticed this trend too, having grown up amongst fundies then moving to the big city as I got older. You find pseudoscience everywhere.
My experience on the religious Right: Yoga, Meditation and Astrology open your mind to Satan. Pray to God, son.
My experience on the Left: Lengthy discussions of star signs, after laughing at those damn fool fundamentalists.
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." George Bernard Shaw
What the theocrats in this country have failed to understand: When you raise a generation lacking critical thinking skills to further your own agenda, they will become susceptible to any and all ideologies. On the other hand, perhaps that's the idea. Its not so much about a belief in a god, its about raising an army that is easily led.
Have gnu, will travel.
Majority of young Americans would like Beta, if they ever came here in the first place.
The majority of young Americans don't even know what VHS is these days, let alone Beta. ;-)
That's only because they think Beta is the opposite of Wers.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
A lot of young people confuse the terms astrology and astronomy. Unless astrology was described prior to the poll, it requires a huge grain of salt.
Indeed, I think it's probably a good sign that kids today probably don't know what Astrology is and figure that it's "the one with the telescopes".
Similarly how many people here know the difference between Cryonics and Cryogenics? One is the study of ultra-low temperature, and the other is the movement surrounding freezing your body after you die with the goal of resurrecting you later when technology advances far enough. But do you know which is which without looking it up?
G.
Due to the ubiquity of digital clocks, many dont know clockwise from counter-clockwise! Righty-Tighty, lefty-loosey - might be asking alot!
Time for a new Political party in the US (or two!) One is off the rails Other cant pony up a leader.
While on par with most religious beliefs, at least astrology has some basis in science. Planetary positions and angular relationships between those planets isn't something that astrologers make up. The data is largely calculated from ephemeris (usually the Swiss ephemeris) and there is a lot of math involved.
If religion had as much science as astrology, everyone would believe in god.
The only thing not science about astrology is the interpreted meanings of the positions and angular relationships.
"Lame" - Galaxar
I am. The scientific knowledge problem is much worse. The "literacy/language" problem is trivial and unimportant.
Come on. People get screwed up easily, and astrology is not an every-day word nor an important word, unless you actually look up an astrological prediction frequently. Just listen to a parent describing the characters on a show their kids like but they can't sit through, and you'll find some amusing word or syllable substitutions in major character names. I'm highly confident that with a little time, we kind find some word I've used more than Astrology in the past year, which is not some specific jargon, and which appears in major dictionaries, yet you have never heard of in your life. It just doesn't come up that often.
I would expect people who are really into astrology to be the most sensitive to the distinction (barring maybe people who are actually astronomers), and people who don't care about being a Leo or a Virgo or whatever to be the most hazy on it.
Plus, real linguists know that astrology really was the term for what we now call astronomy. After all, the word itself even has the form of a science-name: latin for stars, logy for study. Study of the stars.
We have much worse literacy problems than mixing up astrology and astronomy. Like this: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com....
Without RTFA, was there any attempt to remind survey participants that astrology is the one with animal symbols, and astronomy is the one with black holes? If not, this isn't measuring acceptance of astrology, so much as measuring name recognition.
Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.