McGrew & McFall (1990)
Astrologers
and a psychologist matching birth data to case files
6 professional
counseling astrologers nominated by the Indiana Federation of Astrologers (IFA)
and a control subject (a psychologist) were asked to match the birth data of 23 subjects aged 30-31 years to anonymized case
files containing their personal information.
The astrologers had been asked what kind of information they required to
this purpose and a specific 61-item questionnaire had been drawn up for the
collection of the information. The case
files included also photographs so that the astrologers could see body type and
the computer-scored summaries of two standardized psychological tests (the
Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory – form T325 and the Cattell 16 P.F. – Form)
to provide information on general interests, potential vocations and
personality traits
The correct matches achieved by astrologers ranged from 0 to 3(most frequent: 1); the psychologist achieved 3
correct matches. In other words, none of
the assessors performed at a level that was significantly better than
chance.
What is more,
there was no consistency in the replies provided by the astrologers, whose
replies appeared to be due to chance.
The authors of the paper came to the conclusion that “the astrologers
probably could have done just as well if they had matched the birth information
with the case materials in a random manner”
Comments:
This study was
performed more than 30 years ago. Today
I do not think that any astrologer would accept to participate in an
investigation where birth times were based on birth certificates alone i.e.
were not rectified by separate astrologers in order to be reliable
(approximation +/- 1 minute).
Other flaws
were the inclusion of only young adults who may not have fully manifested the
potentials that could be seen in their astrological charts, and failure to
specify the astrological techniques to be used for the matching. It cannot be ruled out that different
astrological techniques might have been more effective.
In conclusion,
according to me also this study is inconclusive.