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Interdisciplinary and Applied
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Astrological Indicators of
Personality
a a
Bernie I. Silverman & Marvin Whitmer
a
Roosevelt University and Stockton State College ,
USA
Published online: 02 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: Bernie I. Silverman & Marvin Whitmer (1974) Astrological
Indicators of Personality, The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied,
87:1, 89-95, DOI: 10.1080/00223980.1974.9915676

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 Published as a separate and in The Journal of Psychology, 1914,87,89-95.

ASTROLOGICAL INDICATORS OF PERSONALITY*

Roosevelt University and Stockton State Colkge

BERNIEI. SILVERMAN AND MARVINWHITMER

SUMMARY
Subjects indicated how aggressive, ambitious, creative, intuitive, and ex-
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troverted they thought they were on nine point rating scales and completed
the Eysenck Personality Inventory. Each subject also designated a friend
who described the subject on the same set of rating scales. As exact birth
times were available for subjects, it was possible to determine their sun,
moon, and ascending signs. The results showed that the astrological indica-
tors of personality were not related to either self or friends’ descriptions of
the subjects’ personalities.

A. INTRODUCTION
Most psychologists no doubt find it difficult to believe that the position
of the planets in the 12 signs of the zodiac a t the time of birth has some
bearing upon later personality. Yet research has been reported that gives
astrology some credibility.
Jung ( 5 ) found that the woman’s sun and the man’s moon were in con-
junction in 10% of married couples’ horoscopes, while in a control group of
horoscopes taken from randomly assigned couples this configuration occurred
5% of the time. Although Jung believed that the difference between these
values was not statistically significant, a t test between sample proportions
shows that it is (t = 3.57, df = 32, 400, p < .01). This finding can be
interpreted to mean that the sun and the moon both play a role in inter-
personal attraction.
A study by Jonas has been reported (7) which suggests that the position
of these heavenly bodies may influence a child’s sex. He was able to predict
the sex of infants in 83 of 100 cases by first estimating the month of con-

* Received in the Editorial Office on February 4, 1974, and published immediately at

Provincetown, Massachusetts. Copyright by The Journal Press.
1 Thanks are due Mrs. Marge Ewell for providing an independent assessment of the
values of the 12 signs in terms of the various personality dimensions. The help of Kerry
Brown, Ronald Stabilini, Clifford Gunderson, and other students at Stockton State College
in calculating horoscopes and administering questionnaires is also appreciated.
89
 90 JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY

ception, and then noting the sign in which the moon fell when it formed an
angle with the sun identical to the sun-moon angle in the mother’s own
natal horoscope. If the moon fell in Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius,
or Aquarius a boy was predicted, while if it fell in any of the other signs,
the prediction was a girl.
Closer to the realm of personality prediction, several investigations are
reported to have shown that the phases of the moon are related to human
aggressiveness manifested in violent crime (4, 6 ) .
On the other hand, Silverman (9) found no relationship between sun signs
and subjects’ value rankings and between sun signs and their choice of
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marriage partners. Perhaps astrology was not supported because other astro-
logical indices of subjects’ personalities were not considered.
From previously cited studies it appears the moon may be related to
earthly events and, more specifically, to personality. In fact, astrologers
have contended that along with the sun sign, the sign in which the moon is
found a t the moment of birth exerts a strong influence on subsequent per-
sonality (1). Another astrological index of personality is the ascending
sign, the sign on the horizon at the moment of birth. This sign attains
significance because it falls within the first house of the horoscope, the
house traditionally associated with personality. “Taking things in their prop-
er order, the focal points of the horoscope are the sun’s sign, the moon’s
sign, and the sign on the ascendent of the chart” (4, p. 53).
To determine whether astrology based personality descriptions were re-
lated to people’s personalities, independent measures of personality are re-
quired. Most investigations measure subjects’ personalities by relying upon
self-reports recorded on questionnaires, and this study was no exception.
Yet in using such a measure there is always the nagging doubt that responses
reflect something other than honest self-perceptions of feelings and actions
( 2 , 3 ) . As agreement between two instruments that theoretically measure the
same thing increases the chances that each measures what it purports to,
self-reports were compared to friends’ ratings of subjects’ personalities.
Friends’ ratings thus served to provide both a second criterion against
which astrological predictions could be tested and a check on subjects’ own
self-descriptions.
The first hypothesis tested was that sun sign, moon sign, and ascendent are
significantly related to subjects’ self-descriptions. The second hypothesis
tested was that the three astrological indicators of personality are signifi-
cantly related to friends’ descriptions of subjects’ personalities.
 B. I. SILVERMAN AND M . WHITMER 91

B. METHOD
Subjects were 130 students and faculty at Stockton State College. Each
indicated how aggressive, ambitious, creative, extroverted, intuitive, prac-
tical, warm, and adaptable he thought he was on nine point scales measuring
these attributes. For example, a subject could indicate he was not at all
aggressive by circling 1, slightly aggressive by circling 3, moderately aggres-
sive 5, aggressive 7, and very aggressive 9. After completing these eight
scales, subjects filled out the Eysenck Personality Inventory, and from their
responses to this questionnaire extroversion scores were subsequently cal-
culated. Subjects then were asked to provide the exact time and place of
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their birth, as well as the name of a friend at Stockton who knew them well
enough to provide an accurate personality description. Those who did not
know their birth time were instructed to ask their parents and provide the
information a t a later date. Only after all questionnaires were completed
was the purpose of the study made clear.
Next, those designated as friends were asked to describe the subject on
the same eight scales used by the subjects to describe themselves. Eighty-six
friends eventually completed these scales. Horoscopes for each subject were
calculated as soon as birth times became available.
On the basis of descriptions found in several astrology books (1, 4, 8) the
experimenters rated each sign on five point scales in terms of how much of
the eight personality attributes it symbolized. A rating of 5 indicated that
a sign denoted much of an attribute, while a rating of 1 meant that little
of an attribute was denoted by a particular sign. To check the validity of
these ratings, a professional astrologer repeated the task, and the two sets
of ratings were compared. Table 1 shows the ratings assigned by the experi-
menters to each sign on five of the personality dimensions, as well as the
strength of the relationships between the astrologer’s and the experimenters’
ratings. The reliability coefficients reveal that in most cases there was agree-
ment between the experimenters and the astrologer with regard to how much
of each personality attribute was denoted by the 12 signs of the zodiac.
Astrological personality predictions were made by assigning to subjects
the experimenters’ ratings corresponding to their sun sign, moon sign, and
ascending sign on each of the five tabled personality dimensions. For ex-
ample, if a subject’s sun was in Sagittarius, his moon in Aries, and if Pisces
was his ascending sign, the predictions would be that he was average in
extroversion (3 + + 5 1/3 = 3.00), average in ambition (3 + + 5 1/3 =
 92 JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY

TABLE 1
ATTRIBUTESOF ASTROLOGICAL
SIGNS~
Aggressive Ambitious Creative Extroverted Intuitive
Sign (Y = .68*) (Y = .61*) (Y = .56) (I = At**) (I = AS**)
Aries 5 5 3 3 3
Taurus 3 3 3 3 2
Gemini 3 3 3 4 3
Cancer 1 2 4 3 5
Leo 5 5 5 3
Virgo 3 1 2 1
Libra 1 3 4 3
Scorpio 4 3 2 5
Sagittarius 3 3 5 3
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Capricorn 5 1 1 1
Acquarius 3 3 3 4
Pisces 1 5 1 5
Note: Correlations within parentheses refer to interrater reliability between experi-
menters and astrologer.
a A high rating indicates that much of an attribute was denoted by a sign; a low
rating indicates that little of an attribute was denoted.
* p < .05.
** p < .01.
3.00), average in aggressiveness (3 5 + +
1/3 = 3.00), and more creative
(3 + +3 5/3 = 3.66) and more intuitive than most (3 3 + +
5/3 =
3.66). These were the ratings that were correlated with subjects’ self-de-
scriptions and friends’ ratings of their personalities to test the validity of
astrology.
C. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 2 shows the correlations between friends’ and subjects’ ratings of

the latters’ aggressiveness, ambition, creativity, extroversion, and intuition.
Significant relationships were found on these five personality dimensions. On
the other hand, nonsignificant correlations were found for the dimensions of
warmth ( I = .IS), practicality ( r = .OS), and adaptability (I = -.03).
I t seemed unfair to expect astrology to predict subjects’ personalities on
these three dimensions when the raters themselves could not agree on the
degree to which subjects manifested these attributes. Therefore they were
excluded from the analysis.
On Table 2 the r column under “Self-ratings” shows the correlations be-
tween subjects’ own self-descriptions and the weights assigned their sun signs,
moon signs, ascending signs, and the average of combination of all three.
None attained significance. Although they are not tabled, it is interesting to
note that the four astrology based ratings of subjects’ extroversion failed to
correlate with subjects’ extroversion scores on the Eysenck Personality Inven-
 B. I. SILVERMAN AND M. WHITMER 93

TABLE 2
PERSONALITY R A T I N G S FUNCTION
AS A OF SUN, MOON,
ASCENDJXC,
AND COMBINED SIGNS

Self-ratings (N = 130) Friends’ ratings (N = 86)

Sign Y F r F
Aggressive (r = .37)**
Sun .07 .83 .01 .9 1
Moon .09 1.10 -.08 .47
Ascending .Of 1.39 .03 .62
Combined .13 .05
Ambitious (I = .25)*
Sun .13 1.34 -.01 .62
Moon .Of 1.32 -.08
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.a0
Ascending .12 1.25 .06 .84
Combined .18 -.01
Creative ( Y = .24)*
Sun .oo 1.15 .13 1.28
Moon .ll .8 1 .10 1.37
Ascending -.01 .57 -.02 .17
Combined .03 .10
Extroverted ( Y = .34)**
Sun .o 1 .64 .09 .64
Moon -.01 .85 .22* .95
Ascending .08 1.18 .o 1 .a5
Combined .05 .17
I-E scale .46* .26*
Intuitive (I = .33)**
Sun .06 .23 .14 1.67
Moon -.05 .56 .07 .a3
Ascending -.04 1.41 .oo .98
Combined -.01 .12
Note: Correlations within parentheses refer to interrater reliability between self and
friends’ ratings.
a Subjects’ extroversion scores on the Eysenck Personality Inventory.
* p < .05.
** p < .01.
tory. There was a substantial relationship, (Y = .46) however, between these
scores and subjects’ ratings of their own extroversion.
On Table 2 the Y column under “Friends’ ratings” shows the correlations
between friends’ ratings of subjects’ personalities and the weights assigned
subjects’ sun signs, moon signs, ascending signs, and the average of all three.
The position of the moon in the zodiac and the Eysenck Personality Inven-
tory scores were both related to friends’ ratings of subjects’ extroversion. Only
one of the 40 correlations calculated between astrology based personality
descriptions and the two sets of criteria ratings attained significance.
It seemed possible that this lack of relationship was due to a misinterpreta-
tion of the signs’ meanings. Perhaps sun signs, moon signs, and ascending
 94 JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY

signs are related to personality, but not in the way the weightings in Table 1
would suggest. To test this possibility, one-way analyses of variance were
performed on both subjects’ and friends’ ratings of subjects’ personalities
with sun signs, moon signs, and ascending signs serving as the independent
variables. The F columns of Table 2 show that not one of the 30 analyses was
significant. Therefore sun signs, moon signs, and ascending signs were not
related either to subjects’ self-descriptions or to friends’ descriptions of their
personalities.
At first glance the small correlations between friends’ and subjects’ ratings
of the latters’ personality might suggest that peoples’ perceptions of their
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own personalities are peculiar to themselves and ought not to be invested with
great importance. The implications of this suggestion for research based
solely upon self-report measures of personality are both obvious and ominous.
However, it is unfair to interpret the correlations shown in Table 2 in the
same way as those typically used as indices of agreement between judges.
Traditionally, correlations are computed between two judges’ ratings of the
same set of subjects. But in the present study each object was evaluated by
a different pair of judges so that the ratings of 172 individuals generated the
correlations in question. These correlations were bound to be artificially
attenuated to the extent that the individual judges differed in their use of
the rating scales (e. g., leniency error) and employed different frames of
reference in defining the nine points along each personality continuum. In
light of these considerations, the small size of the correlations reflecting
judges’ agreement should prove less troublesome.
The results of this study do not conclusively show that astrology is invalid
as a means of predicting or gaining insight into personality. It remains possible
that if all astrological indicators were simultaneously considered along with
those tested herein, significant relationships with subjects’ personalities might
be found. However, the fact that the three single most important astrological
personality indicators failed to correlate with both friends’ and subjects’
descriptions of the latters’ personalities reduces the likelihood of this possi-
bility being true.
REFERENCES
1. ADAMS,E. Astrology-Your Place Among the Stars. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1930.
2. CROWNE, D., & MARLOWE, D . The Approval Motive. New York: Wiley, 1964.
3. EDWARDS, A. L. The Social Desirability Variable in Personality Assessment and Re-
search. New York: Dryden, 1957.
4. GOODAVACE, J. Write Your Own Horoscope. New York: Signet, 1968.
5. JUNC,C. G. The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton
Univ. Press, 1969.
 B. I. SILVERMAN AND Y.WHITMER 95

LIZBER,A. L.,& SECRIN, C. The moon's effect on murders. Los Angeles Times, May 5,
1972. P. 12.
OS"DER, L. Astrological Birth Control. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.:
S., & SCHROEDER,
Prentice-Hall, 1972.
PARKER, D.,& PARKER,J. The Compleat Astrologer. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.
Snwuaxv, B. I. Studies of astrology. J . of Psychol., 1971, 77, 141-149.
Department of Psychology
Roosevelt University
430 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60605
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