NSF Report Flawed; Americans Do Not Believe Astrology Is Scientific

RichDiesal writes "A new report (PDF) from the National Science Foundation, which we discussed a few days ago, states that roughly 40% of Americans believe astrology to be scientific. This turns out to be false; most of those apparently astrology-loving Americans have actually confused astrology with astronomy. In a 100-person Mechanical Turk study with a $5 research budget, I tested this by actually asking people to define astrology. Among those that correctly defined astrology, only 10% believe it to be scientific; among those that confused astrology for astronomy, 92% believe 'astrology' to be scientific."

Comments

Yes, but

[nani popoki]

How many who could correctly define astronomy still believe that it can be used to predict your future. Because that's astrophysics.

Re:Yes, but

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you are confusing astrophysics with astropsychics.

Re:Yes, but

[ebno-10db]

Depends on the time frame. Astropsychics claim to be able to make predictions about years in the future. Astrophysicists claim to be able to do that for billions of years in the future.

I called it.

[Narcocide]

Even more of them will confuse cosmetology with cosmology. Someone trying to weigh a poll to make Americans look uneducated could have done much better.

Re:I called it.

[sideslash]

That is, quite frankly, offensive, and shows ignorance about the work of real scientists.

When cosmetologists work on a model, they refine and test their techniques until they can successfully predict how everything will turn out, and in fact time proves their predictions right. To put it another way, if they consistently gave a bad haircut, they would go out of business. Because it turns out that models can't stand a bad haircut.

Climatologists, on the other hand... well, don't take it from me. Read Feynman on cargo cult science in general, and Richard Lindzen on climate alarmism in particular.

Bottom line -- shame on you for lowering cosmetologists to the level of (OK... _some_) climatologists.

Re:I called it.

[SecurityGuy]

They probably cut science class one too many times and never took the make-up tests.

Re:ahhh english

[rrohbeck]

I absolutely believe that ... astro... something science to be scientific!

It probably has electrolytes too!

Re:Really good question

[sunderland56]

So instead of 40% of Americans having a poor concept of science, it looks like 40% of Americans have a poor concept of English. Is that any better?

Well, what do you expect?

[msobkow]

Given the state of education, what else would you expect? We're talking about a nation that doesn't even know it's own geography, much less that of neighbours in the world. If they think Toronto or Vancouver are the capital of Canada, how can you expect them to know something like astrology vs. astronomy?

Regardless of whether the majority of the population believes astrology is "scientific" or not, one thing is clear: the population as a whole has a shitty education.

Re:Well, what do you expect?

[ebno-10db]

If you're from Texas, that's a belief. If you're not from Texas, it's a wish.

Re:Really good question

[dreamchaser]

Well, duh. We don't speak English here in the States. We speak 'murican.

Cosmology vs. Cosmetology

[Moof123]

A friend of mine in 7th grade signed up for a cosmetology class thinking it was cosmology, and boy was he surprised. At least it was only one of those 1 hours per week deals to fill in a gap with our weird rotating schedule (7 classes for 6 periods).

Re:Really good question

[dreamchaser]

Shhhh. Don't offend them. They have guns.

Re:Really good question

[gman003]

This is America, we ALL have guns!