When we are talking about anti-science beliefs that fall on the left and the right, we often use astrology and belief in ghosts for left-wing crazies. But astrology may be as accurate as psychology, at least when it comes to personality assessments (1) so perhaps it deserves more respect.
Neuroskeptic, the, well, neuroscience skeptic, from the UK recently discussed this 2008 update of a 1985 double-blind test of astrology.
52 college students (naturally - as the legendary Paul Ekman said at the Being Human conference, "We basically have a science of undergraduates") completed a personality questionnaire. A few weeks later, they got two sets back - their self-answered assessment and an astrology one. But they also got a pair of bogus charts, picked at random. They had to figure out which was theirs.
Neuroskeptic has the funny details but, rest assured, psychologists had more success picking the psychological profile for themselves they had filled out...themselves...but not by much. So good luck getting them to make an accurate assessment of you.
Citation: Alyssa Jayne Wymana&Stuart Vyse, 'Science Versus the Stars: A Double-Blind Test of the Validity of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory and Computer-Generated Astrological Natal Charts', The Journal of General Psychology Volume 135, Issue 3, 2008 DOI:10.3200/GENP.135.3.287-300
H/T Bora Zivkovic
NOTE:
(1) Though psychologists are even more partisan than astrologers - only 0.3% conservatives.
