TY - JOUR
T1 - Good day for Leos
T2 - Horoscope's influence on perception, cognitive performances, and creativity
AU - Clobert, Magali
AU - Van Cappellen, Patty
AU - Bourdon, Marianne
AU - Cohen, Adam
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Astrology
KW - Cognition
KW - Creativity
KW - Horoscope
KW - Perception
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84975060956&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84975060956&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.032
DO - 10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.032
M3 - Article
SN - 0191-8869
VL - 101
SP - 348
EP - 355
JO - Personality and Individual Differences
JF - Personality and Individual Differences
ER -