Three students walk into a party. One saunters to the middle of the dance floor and strikes up a conversation with the first person they see, inviting them to dance. The second sticks to the shadows, pulling out their phone and shying away from the other party goers. The third student meets up with their small group of friends and proceeds to spend the rest of the evening having fun while ignoring the rest of the crowd. One student was born in February, one student was born in April, and one was born in May. Can you tell which student was born in which month? Do people’s birthdays – and their corresponding zodiac signs- have an effect on their personalities and behaviors? Let’s find out.

Every person’s birth date aligns with a specific astrology sign, called a zodiac. There are 12 zodiac signs: Aries (Mar. 21 – Apr. 19), Taurus (Apr. 20 – May 20), Gemini (May 21 – June 20), Cancer (June 21 – July 22), Leo (July 23 – Aug. 22), Virgo (Aug. 23 – Sept. 22), Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22), Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21), Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21), Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19), Aquarius (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18) and Pisces (Feb. 19 – Mar. 20). “Imagine a straight line drawn from Earth through the Sun and out into space way beyond our solar system where the stars are. Then, picture Earth following its orbit around the Sun. This imaginary line would rotate, pointing to different stars throughout one complete trip around the Sun—or, one year,” NASA explains. “The constellations in the zodiac are simply the constellations that this imaginary straight line points to in its year-long journey.”

The zodiac signs are split into four groups: fire, water, earth and air. Each element represents characteristics shared by people born under the zodiac signs in that group; astrologers expect air signs to be social, earth signs to be practical, water signs to be empathetic and fire signs to be spontaneous. “I don’t believe in zodiac signs,” junior Aries Rachel Hong said. “But that does sound like me.”

Additionally, each individual zodiac sign has a set of personality traits that are believed to be present in people born under that sign. For example, Pisces are thought to be intuitive, selfless and imaginative, while Aries are considered to be confident, courageous and optimistic and Taurus are widely assumed to be stubborn and determined. “I do consider myself to be determined,” freshman Taurus Ava Klugerman said, “but not stubborn.”

However, it is important to remember that astrology is not astronomy. Astronomy is the scientific study of outer space and everything in it, while astrology is not a science at all. According to NASA, “No one has shown that astrology can be used to predict the future or describe what people are like based only on their birth date.”

Thinking back to that party, can you now know for sure which student was born in which month based on their behaviors and personalities? The simple answer is no. There is no scientific evidence that the constellations on the day a person is born affect their brain chemistry. But, a person’s zodiac sign can have an effect on their personality, if they allow it, because people control their actions and behaviors, which molds their personalities. “I’d like to think that I am selfless when I put others before myself,” sophomore Pisces Helen Duan said. “But my intuition is definitely not Pisces-like.”