Pogo The Clown

The following is an extract from an interesting book titled “Quirkology” by Mr Richard Wiseman. It is about a research done on astrology:

“One of the most unusual and striking examples of this approach was reported by a group
of American researchers in the late 1980s, in a provocatively entitled article, `Astrology on Death Row'."

The researchers first found out the birth time, date, and place of the notorious serial murderer John Gacy. Gacy was a sadistic killer who received twelve death sentences and twenty-one life terms for the torture and killing of thirty-three men and boys. By dressing up as Pogo the Clown, and performing at children's birthday parties in his spare time, Gacy may have given rise to the notion of the `evil' clown. One of the researchers visited five professional astrologers, and presented Gacy's details as his own. The researcher explained to each astrologer that he was interested in working with young people, and asked for a general personality reading and some career advice. The astrologers got it badly wrong. One encouraged the researcher to work with young people because he could `bring out their best qualities'. Another analyzed the information provided and confidently predicted that the researcher's life would be `very, very positive'. A third said that he was `kind, gentle, and considerate of others' needs'.

The work of Hans Eysenck, Geoffrey Dean, and others show that heavenly predictions often fall far short of the mark.”

But another experiment mentioned in later part of the book did show some link with people's behaviour and the time they were born. Apparently, people who deem themselves lucky are generally more optimistic and more able to notice opportunities that come their way, compared to those who considers themselves to be the unlucky bunch. So what is the factor that make the former group more optimistic and more able to notice opportunities? The answer is most of them are born in the warmer months of each year. The later group are normally born in the cold wintry months of the year.

Cheers
Alvin Chua Kim Leng