Romantic chemistry between zodiac signs is produced by the people who believe in it. A
Pew Research Center survey of 9,593 American adults, conducted in October 2024, found that 27% believe the positions of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives.
Belief is higher among women, at 35%, than among men, at 18%, and it reaches 43%
among women aged 18 to 49.
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The overall figure is close to the 29% Pew recorded in 2017, and adults under 30 use astrology and similar practices more than older adults do.
A partner who reads compatibility forecasts arrives at a relationship with a ready
explanation for the other person’s habits, and those explanations shape how the couple
describes its chemistry.
The Traditional Rules of Sign Pairing
Western astrology assigns each of the 12 signs to one of 4 elements, which are fire,
earth, air and water. Aries is a fire sign ruled by Mars.
Libra is an air sign ruled by Venus, and some compatibility writers add that air feeds fire.
The older compatibility rules are geometric.
Signs separated on the zodiac wheel by 60° or 120° are considered favorable for love, signs separated by 180° are seen as a poor match, and right angles are read as a bad sign for the couple.
These rules reached a mass audience through books.
Linda Goodman’s Love Signs is almost 1,000 pages long and is still reprinted 30 years after her death, with the most recent edition dated 2020.
Its readers learn which pairings to expect trouble from before they have met the person in question.
Romantic pairing is also the standard test case for researchers who want to check astrology against data, a use that goes back to Carl
Jung’s work on astrology and synchronicity.
Opposite Signs on the Zodiac Wheel
The opposite pairs are the subject of astrology’s most contested advice. Every sign has
one opposite, the sign 6 places away across the wheel, so the 12 signs form 6 opposite
pairs. Aries and Libras are one of those pairs, 180° apart, which the geometric rules
treat as a poor match.
Many current compatibility writers describe the same pairing as a strong attraction, with the decisive Aries helping an indecisive Libra commit and Libra’s diplomacy softening Aries’s bluntness. Both are cardinal signs, a group that astrologers
associate with starting things.
Two opposite readings of one pairing allow any outcome to fit, since a couple who argue can be described as fire meeting air and a couple who get along as a balance
between opposites.
The description changes to match the relationship, and the couple
comes away believing the stars predicted it.
The Census Test of Love Signs
David Voas of the University of Manchester tested sign pairings in 2007 using the 2001
census for England and Wales. His data covered more than 10 million marriages, or over 20 million people.
He tested sun signs only, because astrologers disagree about which combinations are compatible. The pairings matched what chance would produce.
Couples sharing an exact birthday were 41% more common than expected, and that
pattern was traced to errors and default entries on the census forms.
Voas based the design on a known pattern in marriage data.
People who are similar in age, education, social class and religion marry each other far more often than people
who differ, so a real astrological effect should appear in the same way.
Science journalist Carlos Orsi, writing in 2026, describes the study as the most robust use of
data to test if star signs influence who marries whom, because 20 million people is
enough to answer the complaint that sun signs are too crude a measure.
Astrologers Under Controlled Conditions
In 1985 the journal Nature published a double-blind test by Shawn Carlson. He worked
with 28 astrologers nominated by the National Council for Geocosmic Research, and
they agreed in advance that the protocol was fair. Subjects were shown 3 charts and
asked to pick their own.
They chose correctly in 28 of 83 cases, which is the rate chance predicts. The astrologers matched charts to personality profiles correctly in 40 of
116 cases, again at chance.
A later reanalysis of the same data found a marginal result
and called Carlson’s verdict untenable, though it stopped short of calling astrology
verified.
Self-Attribution and Personality
Psychologist Scott McGreal’s 2022 review of astrology and personality research
describes a 1999 study by Van Rooij.
Its 422 participants rated 96 traits, 8 for each sun sign. People who knew their sign and at least 3 of its associated traits were more likely
to apply those traits to themselves.
A 2020 study by Lu and colleagues, with 173,709 Chinese participants aged 18 to 60, found no sign associated with any of the Big Five
personality traits, and belief made no difference among its 17,373 believers.
The same research found negative stereotypes about Virgos in China, and survey
respondents reported a reluctance to date Virgos.
Bertram Forer showed the underlying mechanism in 1949. He gave 39 students an identical personality sketch, taken largely
from a newsstand astrology book, and they rated its accuracy at 4.26 out of 5.
Horoscopes Inside a Relationship
Susan Blackmore and Marianne Seebold tested the effect on couples directly in 2001.
They gave 46 female undergraduates at the University of the West of England a
personalized horoscope, assigned by coin toss, with positive love advice for 24 of them
and neutral advice for the other 22.
Relationship scores in the positive group rose from 89.9 to 92.1 on a 120-point scale, and the neutral group stayed at about 91.5. The gap was small enough that chance could explain it.
Among women in the positive group, the size of the rise tracked how much they knew about astrology.
The accompanying questionnaire showed the impact of astrology on how these women
approached relationships.
Almost 90% said they find out the sun signs of the people they have relationships with, and 78% had read a book about their sun sign in love.
Only 15% said they would change their behavior because of a horoscope.
Zodiac Chemistry in Plain Terms
Zodiac chemistry is the set of expectations a partner takes from compatibility writing and
applies to the other person.
Pew found that 20% of American adults who consult astrology, tarot cards or fortune tellers do so mostly for fun, while 1% rely on them a lot
for major life decisions.
A couple of opposite signs has the same odds of marrying and staying married as any other pair. The difference between pairings is the explanation
each couple has ready when things go well or badly.
Julianne, with a bachelor’s in communication and journalism.
As a communications liaison and editor at Hiddennumerology. With an interest in crystal energy healing, mental health, and psychology, she brings a holistic approach to her work, fostering strong partnerships and delivering high-quality content.
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