Literature Review (English Writing)

European Psychologist ¥ Belief in Astrology as a Strategy For Self-Verification and Coping With Negative Life-Events Outi Lillqvist and Marjaana Lindeman Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland This study investigated the role of astrology in self-concept verification and coping with negative life-events. Forty students in elementary cours- es of astrology, psychology, and German language rated their certainty about 20 self-describing attributes and three assumptions related to the self.

The subjects were also asked to mark whether and how many times they had experienced particular crises and traumatic events. Participa- tion in an astrology course, but not in psychology or German courses, Keywords: Astrology, self-verification, self-concept, stress.

verified the participant's self-concept by increasing certainty of the self- descriptive attributes and the assumptions of self-control and perceived luck.

In addition, interest in astrology was positively correlated with the number of personal crises, but not with the number of past traumatic events. The motivational mechanisms underlying astrological beliefs and the enormous popularity of astrology are discussed.

Despite the lack of empirical evidence for astrological claims (for a review, see Hines, 1988), belief in astrology as a theory of person perception and self-perception re- mains highly popular. Only a few studies, however, have been performed to investigate the psychological grounds behind this widespread and persistent belief.

In previous literature, belief in astrology has been explained with potential biases in social information pro- cessing, such as a theory-driven and selective approach to person perception (Glick & Snyder, 1986; Rooij, 1994) or susceptibility to illusory correlations (Tobacyk, 1991).

In addition, some studies analyzed personality differenc- es between skeptics and astrology believers. For exam- ple, Glick, Gottesman, and Jolton (1989) suggested that belief in astrology is related to authoritarianism and cer- tainty orientation, such as an intolerance for ambiguity.

Compared to skeptics, believers might have a greater need for information that would reduce the uncertainty associated with making attributions about self and oth- ers.

The study cited above found that believers were more likely to accept vague self-descriptions as being ac- curate, which gives some empirical support for Glick et al.'s hypothesis (see also Hamilton, 1995).

202 Besides the cognitive shortcomings and the person- ality traits that dispose people to believe in astrology and other pseudosciences, it is possible that belief in as- trology serves some important motivational functions.

It seems especially plausible that astrological informa- tion, although illusory, helps the individual to compre- hend both self and the world. Many researchers (e.

g., Baumeister, 1987; Epstein, 1990; Janoff-Bulman, 1989; Smith, 1994; Stevens & Fiske, 1995) agree that these two motives—understanding oneself and the world—are among the most basic human needs that have developed over millions of years because of their high survival val- Outi Lillqvist is a psychologist, now preparing her PhD thesis on every- day thinking. Marjaana Lindeman, PhD, is researcher and lecturer in the Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland. Her major research interests lie in everyday thinking and personality psy- chology.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Marjaana Lindeman, Department of Psychology, Applied Division, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 4, FIN-00014 Finland (tel. +358 9 1912-3249 (office), +358 9 802-6161 (home), fax +358 9 1912-3379 (office), +358 9 813-4931 (home), e-mail Marjaana.

Lindeman® Helsinki.Fi).

The present study rests on the general assumption that astrological information is popular because it ful- fills these needs.

Knowledge of self has been considered fundamen- tal to psychological well-being for decades (e.

g., All- port, 1961; Erikson, 1968). This consideration has been verified by a number of modern personality psychology studies, which indicate that a strong sense of identity, or certainty in self-attributes, is associated with positive self-affect, high self-esteem, and well-being (Baumgard- ner, 1990; Campbell, 1990; Campbell & Fehr, 1990; Mar- cia, 1980; Pelham & Swann, 1989).

In everyday life, people engage in various cognitive and behavioral strategies in order to verify their self- concept (see Swann, 1990, for a review).

For example, people are more likely to pay attention to and remember social feedback verifying their self-conceptions (Swann & Read, 1981a). Moreover, self-confirmatory feedback is easily regarded as especially informative (Swann & Read, 1981b), whereas disconfirmatory feedback is in- terpreted so as to minimize its impact (e.

g., Markus, 1977).

It is possible that astrology is a strategy that verifies self-concept. Astrology offers personality descriptions that are ambiguous and positive (Glick et al., 1989; Sil- verman, 1971) and thus easy to accept as self-descrip- tive.

Moreover, purportedly being computed from an in- dividual's date and place of birth, the information about one's personality would appear to be factual (Snyder, 1974; Snyder, Larsen, & Bloom, 1976), a necessary and essential condition in the self-verification process (Baumgardner, 1990; Pelham, 1991; Swann, Stein- Seroussi, & Giesler, 1992).

We hypothesize that astrological information veri- fies self-concept. Four aspects of self-concept, namely, self-descriptive attributes, self-worth, self-control, and luck, are considered. First, we assume that after individ- uals have learned about astrology, they are more certain of the attributes that describe themselves than they were before developing an openness toward astrological in- formation. The certainty of worthiness of self is assumed to be verified in a similar vein.

We utilize here Janoff-Bul- man's (1989) work, where self-worthiness is character- ized by three basic self-related assumptions: self-worth, self-control, and luck. Belief in one's self-worth involves the extent to which people perceive themselves as good, moral, worthy, and decent individuals (Janoff-Bulman, 1989).

Given the positivity of astrological information, it is plausible to assume that astrology verifies one's per- ceived self-worth. However, it is also possible that as- trology verifies such self-related concepts as self-control European Psychologist, Vol.

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It is claimed that people, through their actions, are able to contribute to the way those planetary influences are realized in their lives.

In other words, astrology suggests that we live in a meaningful, predictable world in which events can be controlled by our own actions.

Besides fulfilling the need to comprehend self, a sta- ble and coherent worldview serves the vital function of buffering the anxiety that results from the awareness of basic human vulnerability (Janoff-Bulman, 1989; Solo- mon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991).

It provides us with expectations about ourselves and the world and makes effective functioning possible.

The function of worldview as an anxiety-buffer be- comes salient especially in major life crises. Serious set- backs, such as life-threatening illness, accidents, or vic- timization by a crime may challenge an individual's whole conceptual system of self and the surrounding world (see Janoff-Bulman & Frieze, 1983).

To cope with personally threatening events, people search for mean- ing in those events, attempt to regain control over them and to make an effort to enhance their self-esteem (see Taylor, 1983, for a review). Some of the coping mecha- nisms may be illusory (Friedland, Keinan, & Regev, 1992; Taylor, 1983), but nevertheless people will put great faith in them.

A few studies have pointed out a positive relation- ship between an experienced threat and the emergence of magical or superstitious thinking. Sales (1973), for ex- ample, found a significant increase in the number of ar- ticles on astrology published in the United States during the economically depressed 1930s. Correspondingly, Padgett and Jorgenson (1982) counted the number of ar- ticles on astrology, mysticism, and cults that appeared in Germany between the two world wars and found that interest in astrology increased with increasing political and economical threat.

In a recent study, Keinan (1994) reported that superstition and magical thinking emerged more frequently in people living in highly stressful conditions than in those under low-stress con- ditions during the Gulf War.

These reports are plausible, for astrology consti- tutes a conceptual system based on predictability and controllability; it claims to provide meaningful explana- tions for various unexpected or negative events, and of- fers an ideology according to which all events or indi- viduals form an integral part of the cosmos.

As a conse- quence, people in stressful situations may feel that astrology helps them understand what is happening 203 Outi Lillqvist and Marjaana Lindeman and why. In other words, belief in astrology may have the function of an anxiety-buffer that serves to protect the individual from anxiety. If this the case, interest in astrology may increase together with negative or stress- ful life-events.

In sum, then, the aim of the present study is to in- vestigate the role of astrology in self-concept verification and in coping with negative life-events. It is hypothe- sized that astrological information will clarify self-con- cept by verifying conceptions about self-attributes, self- esteem, self-control, and luck. More specifically, we as- sume that the participants in an astrology course would be more certain of their self-concept after taking the course than they were before. Our second hypothesis was that there is a positive relationship between interest in astrology and the amount of personal crises and traumatic events.

Method Participants One hundred and twenty-three astrology, psychology, and German-language students originally participated in the study. Seventy-three students were excluded for reasons described below, leaving 50 subjects.

Students of astrology were recruited from two ele- mentary courses in astrology in the City of Helsinki Finnish-language Adult Education Center and from an elementary course arranged for the present study. The courses varied from 4 to 13 weeks' length, but the amount of hours was approximately the same. Previous knowledge of astrology was not necessary. The teachers of these courses were professional astrologers who were unaware of the aim of the study. Originally, 47 voluntary students participated, 22 of whom were excluded be- cause they attended only the first part of the course.

Five subjects were excluded because they did not completely fill out the questionnaire. Thus, the final number of sub- jects in astrology was 20, ranging in age from 22 to 55 years old (M = 40.2). Two of the subjects were male.

The two reference groups were psychology and German students. The subjects in the psychology group were recruited from three introductory psychology courses, two in the City of Helsinki Finnish language Adult Education Center and one at the University of Helsinki's Open University. The courses lasted from 6 to 12 weeks. Originally 46 voluntary students participated in the study, 22 of whom were excluded because they attended only the first part of the study. Three subjects 204 were excluded because they did not completely fill in the questionnaire. The final number of subjects in psychol- ogy group was thus 21.

Their ages ranged from 16 to 59 years old (M = 37.1), and three of them were male.

The subjects in the German group were recruited from two courses of elementary German in the City of Helsinki Adult Education Center. The courses lasted 13 and 14 weeks. Originally 30 voluntary students partici- pated in the study, 18 of whom were excluded because they attended only the first part of the study. Three were excluded because they did not completely fill in the questionnaire, leaving three male and six female Ger- man students (age range 21-50, M = 33.3).

Measures The Latitude of Self-Description Questionnaire (LSDQ, Baumgardner, 1990) was used to measure self-verifica- tion. The scale has been successfully applied in previous studies to measure certainty of the self-concept (Baum- gardner, 1990). It consists of 20 traits (e. g., happy, hu- morous) rated on a 0 percentile to 100th percentile scale with end points "much less than average" and "much more than average." After being presented with each trait adjective, subjects were asked to rate themselves in relation to others in the general population. First, they were asked to mark where they believed they fell, then they were asked to indicate the latitude surrounding that judgment by marking the percentile at which they were certain they were above, and the percentile at which they were certain they were below.

The mean latitude av- eraged across the 20 items indicated the certainty of the belief:

A wider latitude was considered an indication of greater uncertainty about the self-descriptive attributes.

The LSDQ was presented before and after the courses (see Procedure below), and the verification of self-de- scriptive attributes was operationalized as the difference between pre- and post-test scores.

To measure the verification of self-worth, self-con- trol, and luck, we used the dimensions related to self- concept in the World Assumption Scale (WAS, Janoff- Bulman, 1989), modified to the same format as the above-described LSDQ. We included the items original- ly involved in the WAS:

four items concerned self-worth (e.

g., "I often think I am no good at all"), four concerned self-controllability (e. g., "I take the actions necessary to protect myself against misfortune"), and four items measured luck (e. g., "I am luckier than most people.").

(The other dimensions of WAS were also presented to the subjects. However, no significant or meaningful European Psychologist, Vol.

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202-208 © 1998 Hogrefe & Huber Publishers Belief in Astrology results were obtained for these scales, so that these re- sults are not considered here further.) Subjects were asked to answer the items on a 0 per- centile to 100th percentile scale with endpoints "strongly disagree" and "strongly agree." First, they were asked to mark where they believed their opinion fell; next they were asked to indicate the latitude surrounding that judgment in a similar way as in the LSDQ.

The scores on each scale were summed, and the verification of self- control, self-worth, and luck were operationalized by the average difference between pre- and post-test scores.

To measure experienced traumatic life-events, we asked the subjects to mark whether and how many times they had experienced the following events:

The death of a close relative or friend, 2.

A serious illness of a close relative or friend, 3.

A life-threatening situation, e.

g., an accident or a fire, 4.

Rape, incest, physical assault or robbery.

To measure experienced crises, we asked the subjects to mark whether they had recently experienced the follow- ing situations:

Menopause or mid-life crisis (commonly expressed in Finland as a crisis of 30- or 40-year-olds, respec- tively ), 6. Divorce, 7.

Infidelity, 8. Children leaving home, 9. Notice to quit or unemployment, 10.

Economic difficulties, 11.

Re-qualification or change of profession, 12.

Some other crisis.

These negative life-events and crises were chosen ac- cording to the previous literature, where they have been considered as a risk to psychological well-being (Janoff- Bulmann, 1989; Cullberg, 1985).

The number of traumat- ic life-events and crises was studied separately because previous studies have suggested that traumatic life- events may have a long-term impact on the victim's lives (Janoff-Bulman, 1989; Lehman, Wortman, & Williams, 1987), whereas acute crises will increase the tendency to cope immediately with the stressor (Keinan, 1994).

In the reference groups, interest in astrology was evaluated by asking the subjects to rate the following questions on a 5-point scale (1 = Not at all and 5 = Very much):

"Do you believe in astrology?"; "Are you or have you been interested in astrology (e.

g., visits to an astrol- oger)?"; "Have you studied astrology by reading books or attending courses?"; "Can you interpret an astrologi- cal chart?" Because the correlations between the ques- European Psychologist, Vol.

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01), the questions were combined into one variable: "In- terest in Astrology." In the astrology group, familiarity with astrology was evaluated by asking the subjects how long they had studied astrology.

Procedure The data were collected at the beginning and at the end of each course. At the outset of each session the experi- menter told participants that the study concerned "peo- ple's perception of themselves and the world," that par- ticipation would be voluntary, and that any information given would be confidential. During the first part of the study, the subjects were given a packet of questionnaires containing the LSDQ, the WAS, and questions about de- mographic variables, traumatic life-events, and crises.

During the second part of the study the subjects were given a packet of questionnaires containing the LSDQ, the WAS, and questions about their astrological interest (the control group) or how long they had studied astrol- ogy (astrology group). The instructions for completing the questionnaires were given orally.

Results The psychology and German groups were combined in- to one control group, as they did not differ significantly in the verification of self-descriptive attributes, F(l,28) = 0.01, ns, self-worth, F(l,28) = 0.05, ns, self-control, F(l,28) = 1.85, ns, or in luck, F(l,28) = 0.43, ns.

The effect of the astrology course on the verification of the self-concept was tested separately for the four self- concept variables as dependent variables, with two-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) of repeated measures, with study group (astrology versus control group) as between-subjects variable and measurement time (be- fore and after the course) as within-subjects variable.

All means are presented in Table 1.

Because the omnibus F for the interaction between study group and measurement time for the self-descrip- tive attributes was not significant, F(l,47) = 1.42, ns, and because we had only one degree of freedom, the two planned comparisons were conducted with Bonf erroni's method by controlling the error rate by setting the alpha level at .01. The pairwise f-tests revealed that self- descriptive attributes were marginally verified in the astrology group, t(19) = 2.29, p < .03 (effect size, GO2 = 205 Outi Lillqvist and Marjaana Lindeman Table 1 Certainty of the four self-concept variables before and after the course in astrology and control groups.

Variable Self-describing attributes Self-worth Self-control Luck Astrology Before M (SD) 24.13 (11.89) 23.33 (13.51) 23.40 (12.55) 26.23 (15.33) After M 21.55 21.46 20.12 22.49 (SD) (11.96) (12.70) (10.94) (13.25) Control Before M 24.19 23.80 24.23 22.90 (SD) (12.20) (10.97) (9.41) (9.81) After M 23.60 24.69 25.72 24.00 (SD) (11.65) (11.93) (11.00) (12.51) -0.51; Cohen 1988), but not in the control group, £(29) = 0.52, ns (co2 =-0.09).

For the verification of self-control, F(l,47) = 4.67, p < .03, and for the verification of perceived luck, F(l,47) = 5.99, p < .01, this interaction was significant. The specific comparisons showed that self-control was verified in the astrology group, i(19) = 1.99, p < .03 (co2 = -0.45), but not in the control group, t(29) = 1.04, ns (co2 = 0.19). Similarly, perceived luck was verified in the astrology group, f(19) = 2.72, p < .01 (co2= -0.61), but not in the control group, t(29) = 0.82, ns (co2= 0.15). As regards self-worth, no significant differences were found.

Next, the relation of interest in astrology and nega- tive life-events was examined. First, two one-way ANO- VAs, separately for crises and traumatic events, were conducted with the study group (astrology group and control group) as between-subjects variable. The signif- icant main effect for the study group indicated that the astrology group had experienced more crises recently than the control group, F(2, 47) = 8.00, p < .001. Differ- ences in the number of traumatic life-events between astrology and control group were not significant, F(2, 47) = 0.10, ns.

For the control group, a correlation between interest in astrology and the amount of crises and traumatic events was also noted. It turned out that interest in as- trology was positively correlated with the number of cri- ses, r = .44, p < .05, but not with the number of past trau- mas, r = .17, ns.

Discussion The first hypothesis, that exposure to astrological infor- mation verifies self-concept, was largely supported.

Whereas psychology or German courses had no effects on the course participants' self-concept, participation in an astrology course did verify the participants' self-con- 206 cept by increasing the certainty of self-control and per- ceived luck. In addition, the certainty of self-descriptive attributes was increased in the astrology group, though this result was only marginally significant. No signifi- cant changes were found for the certainty of self-worth in any group.

Belief in astrology has previously been related to cognitive biases and personality traits such as intoler- ance for ambiguity and a greater need for information that reduces uncertainty about self and others (Glick et al., 1989). Furthermore, increasing uncertainty in the en- vironment has been found to increase interest in astrol- ogy and other paranormal phenomena (Keinan, 1994; Padget & Jorgenson, 1982; Sales, 1973).

The results of the present study qualify these observations: It seems that astrology not only appeals when uncertainty is experi- enced, but that astrological information actually also verifies an individual's self-beliefs and thus possibly reduces the negative feelings typically linked with uncertainty.

The finding that the astrology students felt their self-concept had been verified may be a consequence of the confluence of, several factors. First, astrological per- sonality descriptions are specially derived for an indi- vidual based on factual information about date and place of birth. Perceived accuracy, in turn, has been shown to increase the perceived validity of personality descriptions (Snyder, 1974; Snyder et al., 1976) and to be a necessary condition for self-concept verification (Baumgardner, 1990; Pelham, 1991). Second, astrology operates largely with personality traits that seem to ap- ply to nearly anyone, at least in some situations. In other words, astrological statements seem to be true because they have something for everybody (e. g., Dean, 1987; Hoorens, 1993). Similarly, character descriptions in modern astrology, and obviously in astrology courses as well, tend to stress positive factors and avoid implica- tions of unfortunate or negative destinies (Nikula, 1987; European Psychologist, Vol.

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Our second hypothesis suggested a positive rela- tionship between interest in astrology and the number of personal crises and traumatic events.

The hypothesis was supported as regards crises but not as regards trau- matic events. First, students of astrology had experi- enced more crises recently than students of psychology and the German language.

In addition, interest in astrol- ogy among psychology and German students was pos- itively and highly correlated with the number of recent crises.

However, there were no differences in traumatic events between the study groups, nor did the number of traumatic events correlate with astrological interest.

Traumatic events and recent crises were investigat- ed separately because acute stressful situations have been shown to increase the need for immediate coping (Keinan, 1994), whereas traumatic events experienced during one's life change self- and worldviews more in the long run (Janoff-Bulman, 1989; Lehman et al., 1987).

This difference may also explain why astrological inter- est was not related to past traumas:

The items for trau- mas covered an entire lifetime, whereas the items for crises concerned only recent events.

Our results thus suggest that astrology plays a mi- nor role in dealing with earlier traumatic events and a more important role in coping with acutely stressful sit- uations. Based on predictability and controllability, as- trology seems to provide meaningful explanations for ambiguous and confusing phenomena, and to increase the feeling of control, which is often lost in stressful sit- uations (Liu & Steele, 1986). Interestingly, the perceived self-control—the control over one's own actions—was also verified after the astrology course, which lends fur- ther support to this interpretation and also to the previ- ous findings on the positive relationship between stress and magical thinking (Keinan, 1994; Padget & Jorgen- son, 1982; Sales, 1973).

Care should be taken, however, in drawing conclu- sions from these data. Because of refusals and inade- quately filled-out questionnaires, the number of partici- pants was small and the samples may have been biased.

Moreover, the participants were mainly women, and pre- vious studies have shown that women are generally more superstitious and have a greater belief in paranor- mal phenomenon than men do (Vyse, 1997). Further re- search is thus required to confirm these results.

In addi- tion, since several studies indicate that certainty in self- attributes is associated with positive self-affect and psychological well-being, investigation of the effect of astrological information on well-being may prove useful.

European Psychologist, Vol.

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The in- creasing interest in astrology during politically or eco- nomically turbulent times as well as among security-ori- ented individuals has been pointed out. The present study gives some empirical evidence of the basis of as- trological beliefs.

To the extent that it verifies assump- tions of self, astrological information seems to have the function of fulfilling the basic need for self-comprehen- sion in general and in stressful situations in particular (e.

g., Smith, 1994; Baumeister, 1987). Hence, although there is no reason to accept astrology as a reliable or ad- equate methods of self-examination, our results may help to shed more light on the mechanisms that underlie the enormous popularity of this illusory autotherapy.

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