Do you believe in astrology? Then you may not be very smart and narcissistic

Swedish psychologists conducted a study, during which they made several conclusions about astrology lovers. It turns out that people who believe in horoscopes and the influence of planets have a number of differences from others. They are characterized by a lower level of intelligence, but at the same time an increased narcissism, compared to others.

The Pew Research Center conducted a large-scale survey in 2018. Scientists have found that the number of people who believe in astrology is constantly growing. While the reasons for this phenomenon are unclear, there is an assumption that this is a response to the stresses and threats experienced by modern society.

A separate work was also carried out, which showed a direct link between problems in personal life and astrology. All this does not seem quite logical against the background of the rapid development of technology. But psychologists have found an explanation for this phenomenon. In their opinion, the belief in the fateful influence of stars and planets is still closer to modern man than the belief in the triumph of science.

The thing is that astrology has been known since ancient times. The modern scientific picture of the world has appeared quite recently. It is quite logical that people prefer to believe in what seems unshakable and time-tested. It is hoped that over time the picture will change and scientific knowledge will still come to the fore.

Scientists at Lund University in Sweden became interested in the personal qualities of people who trust astrology. They published the results of their research in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. To work, psychologists created an online questionnaire and supplemented it with a questionnaire from the University of Rovira and Virgilia, dedicated to astrology.

Cunning pundits diluted the thematic questions with items from the classic IQ test. Thus, they killed two birds with one stone — they got the opportunity to find out a person's attitude to astrology and his level of intelligence. 264 English-speaking users were selected for testing on the Facebook social network.

Testing has shown that those who believe in astrology are prone to narcissism. It also turned out that the intelligence of these people is lower than that of those who are indifferent to horoscopes and predictions. The pattern between the IQ level and faith in astrology is obvious — the higher the coefficient, the less a person trusts the stars.