Good day for Leos: Horoscope's influence on perception, cognitive performances, and creativity

Magali Clobert, Patty Van Cappellen, Marianne Bourdon, Adam Cohen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Do people treat horoscopes as mere entertainment, or does reading horoscopes have more substantial consequences? Building upon research on the expectancy effect as well as on literature highlighting the influence of astrology on individuals, we hypothesized that reading positive versus negative horoscopes would affect people's perceptions, emotions, cognitions, and creativity. Across three experiments, reading positive versus negative astrological forecasts increased positive interpretation of ambiguous events (Experiment 1, N = 195), cognitive performance (Experiment 2, N = 189), and creativity (Experiment 3, N = 193). Furthermore, positive (versus negative) horoscopes decreased negative emotions among people who believe in astrology and the effects of horoscopes on cognitive performances and creativity were stronger among people with a low internal locus of control. Opening newspapers and searching for daily horoscopes have more consequences than one may initially think.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)348-355
Number of pages8
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume101
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2016

Keywords

  • Astrology
  • Cognition
  • Creativity
  • Horoscope
  • Perception

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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