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Majority of 18-20 year-olds call astrology science

Cylinder

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Cylinder
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Via Slashdot.org

Now UPI reports that according to a new survey by the National Science Foundation, nearly half of all Americans say astrology is either 'very' or 'sort of' scientific. Younger respondents, in particular, were the least likely to regard astrology as unscientific, with 58% of 18 to 24 years olds saying that astrology is scientific (PDF)...
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Not good news [PDF]- we're going the wrong way - but I suppose as a higher proportion of students learn about astronomy, more will also confuse the two similar words. At least that's what I want to think.

I believe that children are our future,
teach them well and let them lead the way.
Show them all the beauty they possess inside.
 
we're going the wrong way
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The fact that a lot of people believe in it doesn't mean that belief in it is growing. To demonstrate that, you'd need to compare to historical rates of belief.

The fact that it's more common among young people may simply indicate that the young are more gullible. I was certainly a lot less skeptical about it when I was in my teens. Belief in astrology was very common at my high school. (In an era when dinosaurs Keith MoonWP still walked the earth.)
 
Is there any demographic more likely to give stupid answers just to screw with survey-takers than teenagers?
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Virgos, who are notably gullible, skewed the results.
 
jasonpatterson said:
Not that the confusion is a good thing, but I wonder how many of the pro-astrology people were confused about the difference between the words "astrology" and "astronomy."
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My first thought as well. I have a friend that teaches astronomy in NC & he constantly has to clear up the difference.
 
How do we determine if this is a result of people not knowing what science is, of if it's a result of people not knowing what astrology is?

The former would be bad, bit I'm not really sure the latter is.
 
The survey results aren't quite that bad if you look at them another way.

55% said astrology is “not at all scientific.”

Only 10% said it was “very scientific.”
 
Just a guess here, but I wonder if a significant part of these results is due to the decline in popularity of, and thus a greater ignorance about, astrology. What portion of these respondents have no idea what "astrology" is, and when asked if this particular -ology is a science, will guess that it is?
 
jasonpatterson said:
Not that the confusion is a good thing, but I wonder how many of the pro-astrology people were confused about the difference between the words "astrology" and "astronomy."
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Just to be safe, I don't believe in either one of those.
 
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