Astrology's seductive nonsense -and why we still believe it

A 2025 predictions catalog forecasts intense feelings of love and belonging next winter, but the wording is broad enough to fit many unrelated outcomes. The language can sound bold while lacking specific substance. Rhetorical techniques and psychological biases can make astrological claims appear more impressive than they are. Some astrologers make predictions that can be objectively checked, and those results may be poor. Historical examples include a 1914 prediction of peace in Europe that preceded World War I, and a 1956 prediction that Queen Elizabeth II would have a short reign based on Saturn’s position. The queen instead reigned for decades, showing the claims did not match reality.

"The predictions catalog for 2025, which I obtained from a popular astrology app for $11.25, forecasts that next winter I will lose myself in love and be swept away by the ecstatic feeling of being part of something bigger than myself. Notice that this may refer to a romantic entanglement, a new job, or joining an NGO, a political party, a cult, Christmas carolers, or a barn dance group - among an infinite number of other possibilities. Perhaps the publication of my book will attract an enthusiastic fan base that will shower me with love and adulation. Who knows? The language is bold, but when you put it all together, any pretense at substance vanishes."

"Rhetorical techniques and even some psychological biases combine to make astrological pronouncements sound more impressive than they deserve. But even expert astrologers sometimes slip and make predictions that can be objectively evaluated, with results that are not so good."

"At the beginning of 1914, the magazine Modern Astrology, brainchild of Alan Leo, confidently predicted a year of peace for Europe. World War I would break out in August. In 1956, the German astrologer Carl Heinrich Huter, publisher of a popular series of astrological almanacs, predicted that Queen Elizabeth II would have a short reign: "Anyone looking at the horoscope of Queen Elizabeth II will be deeply stirred by the ominous position of Saturn ... all rulers and politicians with Saturn in this position have either been overthrown or have abdicated of their own free will. There is not a single known exception in the whole of world history.""

Read at Big Think