Newsgroup: it.discussioni.misteri
Titolo: Astrologia a scuola.

All'Istituto Tecnoco Statale Avogadro di Torino si tengono da una decina
d'anni corsi di astrologia. Oggi su LA STAMPA vi si dedica *l'intera
pagina 39*. Buona lettura (magari più tardi ne posto qualche estratto)
;)
-- 
"Partecipano al dibattito anche Pippo Franco, Pippo Baudo, Marcello
D'Orta e Nathalie Caldonazzo" (LA STAMPA, articolo sulla trasmissione
'Porta a Porta' dedicata alla riforma scolastica).
http://digilander.iol.it/mmanca

 'Porta a Porta' dedicata alla riforma scolastica)
Il pupazzo Gnappo non c'era?
 : ). Anzi, : (((
Comunque tornando all'astrologia, ho giusto qui un po' di voci in stile
taglincolla che vorrei togliermi dal gozzo. Per par condicio non rivelo la
fonte e nemmeno mi sono preso la briga di verificare alcunchè, ma se
qualcuno di voi dovesse trovare gli articoli originali, potrà farsi
un'idea della veridicità o meno di quello che gli abstract affermano.
Mi scuso fin d'ora per il pessimo quoting dovuto ai tagli a 72 caratteri
in lettura e in  scrittura.
Pronti?
Si parte:
| >Has anyone ever done any serious scientific research into
| >astrology?
| >For example statistically looking at a certain sign combination
| > then comparing common experiences?
|
| [From an old post.  Should be in the FAQ]
|
| --------------------------begin inserted
file-----------------------------
| A while back, somebody was lamenting the fact the scientists just
| don't take astrology seriously, so they never do any studies to
| find out if it works.
|
| Aside from the fact that nothing is keeping the astrologers from
| doing such studies, I posted a reply stating that plenty of research
| had been done, and the results were negative.
| References were then requested.
|
| Most of these references are "second hand" in that I haven't read
| the actual papers, only summaries in other books and magazine articles.
| If I have misrepresented either the protocol or results of any of
| the following, feel free to correct me.
| I have not included references on the Gauquelin mars effect, which
| has been covered by other threads in far greater detail.
|
| Here are the references I've collected so far -- in no particular
| order:
|
|
| Gauquelin, M.
| Zodiac and Personality: An Empirical Study
| Skeptical Inquirer, 6:3, 57
| 1982
|
| Compiled personality profiles from biographies of 2000 sports
figures,
| actors, scientists, and writers.  Compared these profiles with
| personality traits associated with the sign of the sun, moon, and
| ascendant according to eight astrology texts.  No correlation was
| found using either the sidereal or tropical zodiac.
|
|
|
| Press, N., Michelsen, N.F., Russel, L., Shannon, J., Stark, M.
| The New Yourk Suicide Study
| Journal of Geocosmic Research, 2, 23-47
| 1978
|
| Examined records of suicides in NYC from 1969 to 1973.  Selected
| all suicides who were born in NYC and for which birth data was
| available.
| This resulted in 311 suicide cases.  For each of these, a control
| subject was randomly chosen who was born in the same borough and
| year.  The suicides and matching controls were divide into three
| groups according to year of suicide.
|
| A computer program was used to test 100,000 different astrological
| factors in each of the 622 birth charts for significance between
| suicide and control groups.  None of the factors consistently
| correlated with the suicide cases.
|
|
|
| Culver, R.
| Sun Sign Sunset
| Pachert
| 1979
|
| Van Deusen, E.
| Astrogenetics
| Doubleday
| 1976
|
| Culver, R., Ianna, P.
| Astronomy Quarterly, 1, 147
| 1977
|
| The above three references examined the correlation between sun
| sign and over 60 occupations.  The results of all three were negative
| - no correlation was found between occupation and sun sign.
|
|
|
| Dean G., Mather, A.
| Recent Advances in Natal Astrology
| p113
| The Astrological Association
| 1977
|
| Silverman, B., Witmer, M.
| Astrological Indicators of Personality
| Journal of Psychology, 87, 89
| 1974
|
| Per Dalen,
| Season of Birth
| American Elsevier Publishing
| 1975
|
| Pellegrini, R.,
| The Astrological Theory of Personality
| Journal of Psychology, 85, 21
| 1973
|
| The above 4 references all found no correlation between sun sign
| & personality traits as measured by standardized psychological
| tests, mostly the California Personality Inventory (CPI). However,
| Pellegrini found a slight correlation between the CPI femininity index
and
| index and season of birth.
|
|
|
| Illingworth, D., Syme, G.
| Birthday and Femininity
| Journal of Social Psychology, 103, 153
| 1977
|
| Tyson, G.
| Astrology or Season of Birth: A 'Split-Sphere' Test
| Journal of Psychology, 95, 285
| 1977
|
| These two studies found no correlation between sun sign and
| personality traits measured by the CPI, including the femininity
| index.
|
|
|
| Mayes, B.,  Klugh, H.
| Birthdate Psychology: A Look at Some New Data
| Journal of Psychology 99, 27
| 1978
|
| Compiled natal charts and results of Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality
| Inventory and the Leary Interpersonal Check List for 196 subjects.
| Compared 13 personality traits with sun signs, signs and houses of
the
| moon and 8 planets, and with five planetary aspects.  No
correlations
| were found.
|
|
|
| Mayo, J., White, O., Eysenck, H.
| An Empirical Study of the Relation between Astrology Factors and
| Personality
| Journal of Clinical Psychology, 105, 229
| 1979
|
| Jackson, M.
| Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Date of Birth: A Southern Hemisphere
| Study
| Journal of Psychology, 101, 197
| 1979
|
| These two studies found correlations between astrological factors
and
| the Introversion/Extroversion index of the Eysenck Personality
| Inventory.
|
|
|
| Veno, A., Pammunt, P.
| Astrological Factors and Personality: a Southern Hemisphere
| Replication
| Journal of Psychology, 101, 73
| 1979
|
| Failed to duplicate the correlation found above.
|
|
| Pawlik, K.,  Buse, L.,
| Self-attribution as a Differential Psychological Moderating
Variable
| Zeitschrift fur Sozilpsychologie, 10, 54
| 1979
|
| Showed that the correlation above could be explained by the fact
that
| some of the subjects knew what the expected results would be for
their
| astrological signs.
|
|
|
| Eysenck, H.,
| Astrology: Science or Superstition?
| Encounter, Dec 1979, p85
|
| Jackson, M., Fiebert, M. S.
| Introversion-Extroversion and Astrology
| Journal of Psychology, 105, 155
| 1980
|
| Saklofske, D., Kelly, I., McKerracher, D.
| An Empirical Study of Personality and Astrological Factors
| Journal of Psychology, 110, 275
| 1982
|
| These three studies found no correlation between astrological
factors
| (sun and planetary) and personality, including the
| introversion/extroversion index of the Eysenck Personality
Inventory.
|
|
|
| Culver, R., Ianna, P.
| Astrology: True or False, p215
| Prometheus
| 1988
|
| A double blind test of astrologer John McCall was organized at the
| University of Virginia by Charles Tolvert and Philip Ianna.  McCall
| claimed an 80 percent success rate in choosing the correct natal
| horoscope for a subject from three false ones.  Twenty-eight
subjects
| were chosen according to McCalls requirements (naturally born
| caucasians).  McCall had 7 successes out of 28 trials, exactly the
| number predicted by chance.
|
|
|
| Silverman, Bernie I.,
| Contemporary Astronomy by J. Pasachoff, cf p437
| W. B. Saunders
| 1977
|
| Kop, P., Heuts, B.
| Journal of Interdisciplenary Cycle Research 5, 19
| 1974
|
| The above 2 studies found no correlation between marriage/divorce
rate
| and sun sign combinations in the state of Michigan and the city of
| Amsterdam, respectively.
|
|
|
| John McGervey
| Physicist
| Case Western Reserve University
|
| Found that the sun signs of 6,000 politicians and 10,000 scientists
| were randomly distributed.
|
|
| Shawn Carlson
| A Double-blind Test of Astrology
| Nature, 318, 419
| 1985
|
| 116 adults filled out California Personality Index surveys and
| provided natal data.  One set of natal data and the results of
three
| personality surveys (one of which was for the same person as the
natal
| data) were given to an astrologer who was to interpret the natal
data
| and determine which of the three CPI results belonged to the same
| subject as the natal data.
|
| The San Francisco chapter of the National Council for Geocosmic
| Research recommended the 28 astrologers who took part.  They
approved
| the procedure in advance and predicted that they would select the
| correct CPI profiles in more that 50 per cent of the trials.
|
| Out of 116 trials, the astrologers chose the correct CPI 34 per
cent
| of the time.  This agrees with the random chance prediction of 1 of
3
| trails producing a correct choice.
|
| Horoscopes were prepared by professional astrologers for 83
subjects.
| Each subject was given three charts, one of which belonged to the
| subject.  In 28 of 83 trials the subject chose the correct chart.
| This is the success rate expected for random chance.
|
|
|
| Dean, Geoffrey
| (trying to find reference)
|
| Astrological readings were done for a groups of subjects.  The
content
| of some of the readings were reversed (changed phrases describing
the
| subject to their opposites).
|
| Subjects reported that both the reversed and normal readings
applied
| 95 per cent of the time.
|
|
|
| Gauquelin, M.
| L'Influence des Astres, Etude Critique et Experimentale
| Dauphin Press
| 1955
|
| Found no correlation between occupation and the zodiac signs
| containing Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Moon at
the
| time of birth.
|
|
|
| Gauquelin, M.
| The Cosmic Clocks, p84
| Henry Regnery Co.
| 1967
|
| Found random distribution of the house containing Saturn for
| successful individuals, and the house containing Mars for
murderers.
|
|
|
| Barth, J., Bennet, J.
| Leonardo 7, 235
| 1974
|
| Found no correlation between occupation, medical problems, height,
| longevity, and the zodiac signs containing Mercury, Venus, Mars,
and
| Jupiter at the time of birth.
|
|
|
| Culver, R., Ianna, P.
| Astronomy Quarterly, 1, 85
| 1977
|
| Pretty much the same study and results as the previous reference.
| Additionally, no correlation was found between occupation, medical
| problems, etc. and angular separation (along the ecliptic) of
planet
| pairs at time of birth.
|
|
|
|
| Dean, G.
| Does Astrology Need to be True?  Part 1: A Look at the Real Thing
| Skeptical Inquirer, 11, 166
| 1987
|
| Astrologers prepared horoscopes for subjects correct natal data.
| Reversed charts were then constructed from the correct charts by
| retaining the sun sign, but reversing all of the planetary aspects.
| Half of the subjects were given correct charts, the other half were
| given reversed charts.  There was no correlation between the
perceived
| accuracy of the charts and whether the subject was given a correct
or
| reversed chart.
|
|
|
| Dwyer T.
| Unpublished word described in Dean, 1987.
|
| Horoscopes were prepared for correct natal data and for a birth
date 5
| years and 6 months before the correct date, with the correct sun
sign
| retained.  Thirty subjects were given the correct and incorrect
| charts.  Half of the subjects picked the correct chart, half chose
the
| incorrect chart.
|
|
| From: 
lip...@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu
 (James J. Lippard)
| Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
| Subject: Re: Astrology References
|
| A couple more, one negative and one positive:
|
| McGrew, John H., McFall, Richard M.
| A Scientific Inquiry Into the Validity of Astrology
| Journal of Scientific Exploration, 4, 75-83
| 1990
|
| Abstract--Six expert astrologers independently attempted to match
| 23 astrological birth charts to the corresponding case files of 4
| male and 19 female volunteers.  Case files contained information on
| the volunteers' life histories, full-face and profile photographs,
| and test profiles from the Strong-Campbell Vocational Interest
Blank
| and the Cattell 16-P.F. Personality Inventory.  Astrologers did no
| better than chance or than a nonastrologer control subject at
| matching the birth charts to the personal data; this result was
| independent of astrologers' confidence ratings for their predicted
| matches.  Astrologers also failed to agree with one another's
| predictions.
|
| Marbell, Neil Z., Novak, Angela R., Heal, Laird W., Fleming, Land
D.,
| Burton, Jeannine Marie
| Self Selection of Astrologically Derived Personality Descriptions:
| An Empirical Test of the Relationship Between Astrology and
Psychology
| NCGR Journal, Winter 1986-87, 29-44
|
| Abstract--Twenty-four female subjects were asked to recognize as
| true or untrue complex personality characteristics describing
themselves
| and to select one of three personality profiles as their own;
personality
| information had been derived by "blinded" astrologers from natal
charts
| representing the moment of birth.  Three different experiments
varied as
| to the complexity of the astrologically derived personality
characteristics,
| method of test material administration, and subjects' knowledge of
the
| astrological basis for personality information.  Overall results
for the
| three experiments evaluated using cumulative binomial distribution
were
| significantly non-random, with p<.001 for 15 valid trials and p<.01
| for all 24 trials including nine found non-eligible for inclusion.
These
| results supported the validity of astrology's capability to
generate
| unique personality descriptors that subjects affirm by selection as
| representative of their own personalities.
|
| [Comment on this last one:  This is in an astrology publication
(the journal
| of the National Council for Geocosmic Research) and the description
of
| the methodology is a bit vague in places, as are the reasons why
some of
| the subjects were disqualified.  The article is followed, however,
by
| letters from various people praising the methodology--including the
| late CSICOP Fellow George Abell and Allan Teger, Boston University
| professor and former program director for social and developmental
psychology
| for the National Science Foundation.  These letters all date from
the late
| seventies.  There's also a letter from Paul Kurtz in support of
Marbell's
| application for NSF money for an astrological study, but you can't
tell from
| the letter whether Kurtz saw the details of these particular
experiments.]

 ;)
Direi che a questo punto anche Feyerabend sia accontentato.
Mi spiace un po' per Avogadro... :o))
Saluti.
--
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§  L'uomo puo' credere all'impossibile, non credera' mai all'improbabile. -
O.Wilde
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                                 ^^SpAwN^^