Edwina Bartholomew
December 4, 2007 7:40:00 AM.
Scientists have found a person’s birth date shapes their personality and later lives. Astrology is often dismissed as superstition but there could be some science in the stars after all.
UK Research has revealed the time of year a person is born can influence his or her personality, health and even whether they are male or female.
It’s not a matter of being a Scorpio or Cancer – it’s more to do with the season a person is born in. Women born in spring will display more impulsive behaviour while those whose birthday falls in Autumn will be more reflective.
Men born in May will tend to be physically active and excel in football while those born in the spring are better suited to chess.
Source: LIVE News
What do you think about this? Do you believe in it?
How can we believe it? No evidence is presented in the article, just a vague insistence that “scientists” say so. They don’t even say that it happens, only that it can happen.
When you qualify it that much, it’s meaningless. Do I believe that people born in the spring can be impulsive? Sure, I guess so. But is that worth writing a news story over?
Sounds like balony
…or baloney.
More like hog wash with a side of fava beans.
Please stop calling Astrologists for Scientists…
Now that article gives no reason to believe it. However, it has been suggested that what mother encounters during pregnancy (her food, temperature regime and the like) may well have an influence on the child’s characteristics (it’s not exactly my field of research, so sorry, I cannot give any reliable sources). With this in mind: yes, entirely possible.
One interesting fact is that a majority of english football players were born in september, but that’s because of the way the school years are divided, which means that you are more likely to excel in one’s own year group if you’ve been born early on in that school year.
I suspect that this is more pronounced in england given the pysichality of English football; Italy and Spain, I suspect, have far more even birth demographics.
But it’s impossible to define the right birth conditions for a chess player…
What the last commenter refers to has also been statistically noted in recreational youth soccer leagues in my town—Amherst, NY, a big suburb of Buffalo. Almost 40%, if I recall, of youths who stay with soccer as teenagers were born in the first quarter of the pre-teen grade-eligibility year, making them on average 5-6 months older than their peers in that year. This apparently gave them enough of a competitive advantage to make them more likely to stay with the sport.
I can’t find the original study from the referenced link, and am too busy to pursue—so I don’t know if its authors corrected for this effect. Nor does the story say whether it shows up in equatorial countries or even parts of the US that have a more-even climate. But I won’t be surprised that the climate you have at age 3 months makes a difference.
“Majority of English football players were born in September”…
Not a majority – 262 out of 1779 – it was the most popular month for their birth. It is the second most popular month for births (probably to do with being 9 months from Christmas) anyway. There is a preponderant of player born at the start of the school year as noted in other comments.
Without a reference to what research it is just more vague speech.
The article claims May is a good month for footballers – where as it is noted that September, October, and November are the best months for professional footballers. So on the one easily testable claim the article seemed to have failed already.
Show me the stats 😉
Isn’t May in the spring?
Just as un-scientific as “occultism” is to discard the study of such “weird” propositions.
But…
To say that birthday has something to do with chess playing abilities…
a. You must have studied a lot of chess players, from all the ranges
b. You must have studied a lot of non chess players
c. You must find that a real big part of chess playes or a real big part of high rated chess players belong to a specifc birthdate.
d. You must find that at the same time that specific birthdate belongs to a little part of low rated chess players. (Proportionally)
e. You have to see what happens with people not involved in the game. Are the people in with that birthdates good in other logical/mental activities?
Study it this way, publish your results,… and we can go on talking about it.