<p>You are more likely to become a celebrity if you were born between late December and March, a new study suggests.<br /><br /></p>.<p>People's personalities tend to vary somewhat depending on the season in which they are born, and astrological signs may have developed as a useful system for remembering these patterns, according to researchers.<br /><br />Such seasonal effects may not be clear in individuals, but can be discerned through averaging personality traits across large cohorts born at the same time of year.<br />Psychologists have known that certain personality traits tend to be associated with certain birth months.<br /><br />For example, people born in January and February tend to be more creative, and have a higher chance of being diagnosed with schizophrenia, than people born at any other time of year.<br /><br />And people born in odd-numbered months tend to be more extroverted than those born in even-numbered months.<br /><br />Traditional Western astrology uses elements (water, earth, air and fire), sign duality (bright/dark) and sign qualities (cardinal, mutable and fixed) to describe and categorise these effects.<br /><br />It considers late December through early March as a "wet" time of year, and connects wetness with creativity, for example.<br /><br />"Fixed" signs are said to be more stubborn and persistent than others, researchers said.<br />Hamilton looked at a data set of 300 celebrities from the fields of politics, science, public service, literature, the arts and sports.<br /><br />He found that celebrities' birth dates tended to cluster at certain times of the year. 'Wet' signs were associated with more celebrities, as were signs classified as 'bright' and 'fixed'.<br /><br />"Psychologists want to dismiss these astrological correlations, but there are seasonality effects that we have yet to explain," said researcher Mark Hamilton, a social scientist in the Communication Department at the University of Connecticut (UConn).<br /><br />Hamilton is not arguing that heavenly bodies are the true source of these effects; rather, astrological aspects are just useful tools, or heuristics, that help people remember the timing and patterns of nature.<br /><br />Hamilton is currently working with other researchers on an analysis of 85,000 celebrities dating from 3,000 BC to the present era.<br /><br />He said that the seasonality effect on celebrity appears to hold true even in this large data set stretching across millennia and cultures.<br /><br />The study was published in the journal Comprehensive Psychology.</p>
<p>You are more likely to become a celebrity if you were born between late December and March, a new study suggests.<br /><br /></p>.<p>People's personalities tend to vary somewhat depending on the season in which they are born, and astrological signs may have developed as a useful system for remembering these patterns, according to researchers.<br /><br />Such seasonal effects may not be clear in individuals, but can be discerned through averaging personality traits across large cohorts born at the same time of year.<br />Psychologists have known that certain personality traits tend to be associated with certain birth months.<br /><br />For example, people born in January and February tend to be more creative, and have a higher chance of being diagnosed with schizophrenia, than people born at any other time of year.<br /><br />And people born in odd-numbered months tend to be more extroverted than those born in even-numbered months.<br /><br />Traditional Western astrology uses elements (water, earth, air and fire), sign duality (bright/dark) and sign qualities (cardinal, mutable and fixed) to describe and categorise these effects.<br /><br />It considers late December through early March as a "wet" time of year, and connects wetness with creativity, for example.<br /><br />"Fixed" signs are said to be more stubborn and persistent than others, researchers said.<br />Hamilton looked at a data set of 300 celebrities from the fields of politics, science, public service, literature, the arts and sports.<br /><br />He found that celebrities' birth dates tended to cluster at certain times of the year. 'Wet' signs were associated with more celebrities, as were signs classified as 'bright' and 'fixed'.<br /><br />"Psychologists want to dismiss these astrological correlations, but there are seasonality effects that we have yet to explain," said researcher Mark Hamilton, a social scientist in the Communication Department at the University of Connecticut (UConn).<br /><br />Hamilton is not arguing that heavenly bodies are the true source of these effects; rather, astrological aspects are just useful tools, or heuristics, that help people remember the timing and patterns of nature.<br /><br />Hamilton is currently working with other researchers on an analysis of 85,000 celebrities dating from 3,000 BC to the present era.<br /><br />He said that the seasonality effect on celebrity appears to hold true even in this large data set stretching across millennia and cultures.<br /><br />The study was published in the journal Comprehensive Psychology.</p>