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Psihologija – dodiplomski program na PIM Univerzitetu , Banja Luka , Bosnia and Herzegovina
Astrology is a pseudoscience of long tradition and large cultural impact. It is based on the assumption that position of celestial bodies can predict future events, explain human personality, etc. Despite being scientifically unsound, astrology maintains its popularity. Earlier research has shown that various sociodemographic characteristics, such as age, sex, religiosity, relationship status, and level of education, predict inclinations towards astrology. The purpose of this research was to explore these relations and level of preferences for astrology on a sample (mainly) from the BiH. A total of 285 people (51.6% male) of an average age of 27.39 (SD=8.65) years was surveyed online.After brief instructions, participants were given a generic natal chart, but with a false indication that it was “personalized“. Using a 10-point scale (1=“not at all“, 10=“absolutely“), participants judged a precision of the description, its usefulness, and the level of confidence in astrology. 20.4% participants said that the description did not assess them well, but 39.9% said that it assessed them above the average to absolutely (values 6-10, with “absolutely“ selected by 2.8% participants). For usefulness, the numbers were 35.4% and 21.1% (2.1% “absolutely“), and for confidence in astrology, 37.9% and 17.9% (1.8% “absolutely“). Because the evaluations were substantially correlated, they had been reduced to a principal component,representing “a general inclination towards astrology“. Its scores were higher in younger participants (ρ=-.21, p<.001) and religious people (U=4466, p=.002, r=.18), but with no sex (U=8927, p=.080, r=.10), or relationship status (H=5.80, p=.45, η2 H<.001) differences.Finally, it was foundthat a general preference for astrology tends to decrease with an increase in educational level (H=14.73, p=.005, η2 H=.04). Aside from the absence of sex and relationship status differences, other findings roughly coincide with the foreign ones, even though the results should not be uncritically generalized due to the current sample limitations.
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