The stars align, but so do patterns

I believe in magic but I'm also a Capricorn so no I don't.

Here’s my rant disguised as a blog post.

I recently had a chat with someone about our zodiac signs and it got me thinking. While I didn’t say it at the time (didn’t really fit the convo), my brain kept circling back: Yes I believe to a point in zodiac signs, stars, moon locations, all the little mystical stuff, but I also kind of don’t. It’s fun. It’s cute. And sometimes it does fit… “Yep, that’s me.” But I’m also the girl opening another tab and asking what’s actually going on.

Because here’s the thing: the human brain loves pattern recognition. We spot something that looks like us, latch on, skip the parts that don’t, and say “Oh that’s me!” That’s called confirmation bias (hello, brain). The idea that Capricorns are ambitious and strategic? Sure that fits me, but are we ignoring the ten other traits that don’t ring true? Very possibly. Psychologists also use the term Barnum effect or Forer effect to describe how people give high accuracy to vague personality descriptions because they want them to fit. (en.wikipedia.org)

But here’s where I lean in. There is credible research showing that the season or month you’re born might leave a trace on your temperament, mood patterns, and even brain structure. For example, a recent study of nearly 3,000 Korean college students found that men born in summer or winter scored higher on the “Extravagance” subscale of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Men born in the fall scored higher on “Disorderliness.” (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) Another study found that university students in Hungary showed significant associations between birth season and affective temperaments (Hyperthymic, Depressive, etc.). (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

So yes, maybe the stars do align. But maybe it’s less about planets and more about photoperiods, prenatal vitamin D levels, light exposure in utero, and other environmental patterns. For instance, a neuroimaging study showed that people born in winter versus summer had measurable differences in grey matter volumes in certain brain regions, and those differences were linked to the time of year of birth, thought to be influenced by day length and photoperiod. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

That doesn’t mean we’re destined by our birth month. It just means there’s something. My logic-loving Capricorn brain finds this appealing: we can believe in magic and trace a footnote. So yes, I’ll read my Capricorn horoscopes. I’ll drop a smile when it says “ambitious leader.” But I’ll also remind myself that part of why that statement feels right is because I’m wired to see it when it’s there, ignore when it isn’t, and maybe the season I was born in set up some of my wiring to begin with.

As crazy as ever, Kate