Anja Prummer - Queen Mary University of London

Astrological Beliefs and Marriage Outcomes

    Date:  11/20/2019 (Wed)

    Time:  3:15pm- 4:45pm

    Location:  Seminar will be held on-site: Social Sciences 111

    Organizer:  Peter Arcidiacono, Ph.D.


Meeting Schedule: (Not currently open for scheduling. Please contact the seminar organizer listed above.)

    All meetings will be held in the same location as the seminar unless otherwise noted.

    3:15pm - Seminar Presentation (3:15pm to 4:45pm)


    Additional Comments:  Abstract: We document empirically that astrology influences marriage decisions: we find a higher share of astrologically compatible couples among all those married. Using a novel identification strategy, we show that this effect can be causally explained by Google search trends. In areas with a higher search for astrological compatibility terms, more astrologically compatible couples get married. Do these marriages last? Although astrology is a pseudo-science, it may well be that those believing their partner is the best possible match ignore contradictory evidence and display confirmatory bias. We show that astrologically compatible couples are more likely to get divorced, finding little evidence for confirmatory bias, but instead for a model of rational updating.