TL;DR: Higher education does come with lower belief in fortune telling, but the link is modest and mostly runs through thinking style (intuitive or analytical) rather than through a degree. People with strong analytical thinking tend to believe less, even after controlling for intelligence. Even so, scientific understanding and paranormal belief can coexist.
Is there a link between education and belief in fortune telling?
Higher education comes with lower belief in fortune telling, but the link is modest and mostly runs through thinking style rather than through a degree. Put another way, what predicts belief better than years of schooling is how a person processes information: leaning intuitive or leaning analytical. And someone with scientific understanding can still use supernatural explanations for other questions such as illness, death, or luck.
Kia Aarnio and Marjaana Lindeman (2005) surveyed Finns about education, field of study, and paranormal belief, and found that higher education came with lower belief, mostly through thinking style.
What do the Finnish surveys say about education and belief?
Aarnio and Lindeman's study, published in Personality and Individual Differences in 2005, found that the link between education and paranormal belief is not as strong as many imagine, and that most of that link runs through thinking style.
A notable point is that field of study also plays a role. Students in the natural sciences and engineering tend to believe less than students in the social sciences and humanities, but the gap is not large and is not enough to say that a degree determines belief. A physics graduate can still read a horoscope every morning; a literature graduate can still be entirely skeptical.
Does analytical thinking predict lower belief?
Gordon Pennycook and colleagues (2012), published in Cognition, found that analytical thinking style predicts lower religious and paranormal belief after controlling for intelligence. In other words, it is not only intelligent people who believe less, but people who tend to analyze a problem before accepting it.
Annika M. Svedholm and Marjaana Lindeman (2013), published in the British Journal of Psychology, found that intuition increases and reflection decreases paranormal belief. They use the term "reflective mind" to mean the ability to pause, examine, and revise an initial judgment.
The mechanism many researchers propose is this: paranormal belief often rests on "ontological confusions," that is, assigning properties of one category to another, for example holding that thoughts can move between people like a physical object. People with strong analytical thinking tend to detect and correct such confusions before they become beliefs.
Pennycook and colleagues (2015) also found that analytical thinking is linked to less acceptance of statements that sound profound but are actually empty of meaning. This supports the hypothesis that analytical thinking works as a filter.
Why do some Europeans consider astrology a science?
Nick Allum (2010), published in Science Communication, found that low scientific knowledge explains only part of why people consider astrology a science. The rest relates to attitudes toward science in general, religious belief, and how the media present astrology.
Ida Andersson and colleagues (2022), published in Personality and Individual Differences, found that in their self-selected sample, narcissism most strongly predicted belief in astrology, while intelligence correlated negatively. Note that this is a self-selected sample, so it does not represent the general population.
Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, in Ashmand's English translation printed in 1822, presents astrology as a system with its own rules, not identical with astronomy. This shows that even in antiquity, practitioners distinguished the two fields.
A major difficulty in population surveys is that the question does not specify which kind of astrology is meant. Gerhard Mayer (2020) pointed out that questions like "do you believe in astrology" can be understood as newspaper horoscopes, television shows, or professional astrologers, and the interpretations differ greatly.
Why do natural and supernatural explanations coexist in adults?
Cristine H. Legare and colleagues (2012), published in Child Development, found that natural and supernatural explanations coexist in adults, including those who understand science. In other words, a person can explain illness by bacteria and also by "fate" without seeing a contradiction.
This fits the observation of Bronisław Malinowski in Magic, Science and Religion (1925) that people distinguish the natural and supernatural domains by value, not by logical contradiction. Malinowski held that the two domains interweave in everyday life.
Some modern astrological schools define themselves as a symbolic system for reflection, not a predictive science. This is the system's own statement, not an assessment of its validity.
What do the main studies on education and belief show?
| Study | Data scope | Main result |
|---|---|---|
| Aarnio & Lindeman (2005) | Finns | Higher education goes with lower belief, mostly through thinking style |
| Pennycook et al. (2012) | Student and community samples | Analytical thinking predicts lower religious and paranormal belief after controlling for intelligence |
| Svedholm & Lindeman (2013) | Finnish sample | Intuition increases, reflection decreases paranormal belief |
| Allum (2010) | European survey | Low scientific knowledge explains only part of considering astrology a science |
| Andersson et al. (2022) | Self-selected sample | Narcissism predicts most strongly, intelligence correlates negatively |
| Legare et al. (2012) | Cross-cultural, multiple ages | Natural and supernatural explanations coexist in adults |
Where is the evidence lacking for Vietnam?
No representative survey on education and belief in tử vi or date selection in Vietnam has been published in the sources referenced in this article. The results above all come from Finland, Europe, or North America, and should not be extrapolated to Vietnamese people without research on Vietnamese people.
The book Cung Sao Giải Hạn by Lê Đức Hạnh (2008) presents a system of annual stars by age and sex, for example Thái Bạch, La Hầu, and Kế Đô being considered severe. This is the system's own statement, not evidence of validity.
What real effects arise from belief?
There are effects recorded in practice whose cause is belief, not a system predicting correctly. For example, a person who believes today is an unlucky day may be more cautious, and that caution can change the outcome. This is a psychological effect, not evidence for predictive ability.
Brooks (2025) summarized that paranormal belief is linked to several cognitive biases such as anthropomorphism, detecting illusory patterns, an exaggerated sense of control, and confirmation bias.
Frequently asked questions
Do people with a university degree believe less in fortune telling?
There is such a tendency, but the correlation is modest and mostly runs through thinking style rather than through a degree. Someone with a university degree can still believe, and someone without a degree can still be skeptical.
Why do people who understand science still believe?
Because natural and supernatural explanations can coexist. Research by Legare and colleagues (2012) shows that adults use both kinds of explanation for different questions.
Can analytical thinking be changed?
There is evidence that analytical thinking can be temporarily activated, but how lasting it is is still being studied. This is an area without a definitive conclusion.
Conclusion
Belief in fortune telling is not a matter of "being uneducated." The correlation exists but is modest, and many people who understand science still use supernatural explanations for other questions such as illness, death, and luck. Remember that a correlation says nothing about any particular individual.
