Why Do People Follow Astrology?

|By- Harshita Sharma|

“The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars, but ourselves.” William Shakespeare quoted this ages before 90% of earth’s population started deriving their sun signs, well indeed was he a smart fella. If you’ve noticed a whole lot of “7 signs of an Aries” or “I’m a Pisces, thus me being an Aries is justified” memes on social media lately. Well, there’s a reason for that.

Sourced out from 2009’s Harris polls, there are around 48% people on earth who believe in some or the other form of astrology, which is way more than the 23% of people who believe in witches, but less than the 49% of people believing in UFOs and the 53% of the most rational people believing in ghosts.

There are many explanations which account for people believing in all such sorts of things. The popular opinion why astrology works is because of its vague generalization, the horoscopes in your daily newspapers never predict anything specific. They talk about stuff that might stand a greater possibility of turning accurate in some way or other in people’s lives. This is what the scientists call as Barnum effect or the Forer effect which is a common psychological phenomenon whereby individuals give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them, yet which are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. If you read, ‘You have a lot of unused potentials that you have not used to your advantage’, do try to haul in mind that everyone feels that this is true for them as well.

Notwithstanding that astrology has absolutely no science to root for, it still is one of the most glorious and wealthy industries especially in India, now more so expanding with the digital advancements. However, the question stands that despite years of criticism, why do people still continue to believe in astrology?

Human beings constantly seek narratives to help weave their past, present, and future together through their goals and expectations; and that’s where astrology comes in. “[Astrology] provides [people] a very clear frame for that explanation,” Monisha Pasupathi, a developmental psychologist at the University of Utah, told The Atlantic.

Humans have this constant desire to validate themselves and feel connected to something bigger than themselves, the need to be accepted and the compulsion to gain a sense of control in the unpredictable environment. We to prove the righteousness seek for hints and take note of evidence to support their beliefs. And for the rest of others, it provides them with a sense of belonging. It allows them to see themselves as a part of the world: “Here’s where I fit in, oh, I’m Pisces,” Margaret Hamilton, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, told Smithsonian Magazine in 2016.

Image Source- Wix Media

Research shows, not only to make one feel good, but astrology also helps people as a coping mechanism to relieve stress and anxiety. To support this fact, the first astrology column to be published in a newspaper was during the Great Depression, 1930. Even in the current scenario, while a major pandemic is threatening the existence of our livelihoods with injecting a host of uncertainties, people are dependent more on foretellers and tele astrologers who claim to have been working overtime to predict the vaccine and the virus.

Another major reason which pushes people towards astrology is the uncertainty and the fear of the same. Sometimes consulting an astrologer is like seeking an advisory for making a decision, permission to take a chance, whether to leave a hated job or invest in a property.

For decades, women have been the strongest consumer of astrology. Flip open popular magazines and you see women devouring upon horoscopes and tell you about yourselves. A 2005 Gallup poll revealed 28 per cent of women believed compared to 23 per cent of men. Past the few decades of feminine revolution, there has been a growing popularity of the same among the women of the age group of 18-35. The reason behind this is, magazines and marketing hubs are using this demographic distinction to its best value yet used. Women are generally more intuition biased than men.