A telephone survey of 334 students conducted by an Iowa State journalism class suggests a majority of ISU students think horoscopes are more fictional fun than fact.

Randomly selected students answered questions about horoscopes and astrology, producing results with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points.

Despite criticism that horoscopes are bogus, 95 percent of students said they know their astrological sign, and more than half said they read their horoscopes frequently.

Twenty-one percent said they read it most or all days, and 31 percent of surveyed students said they checked it at least once a week.

“On a good day I believe them. On a bad day I don’t,” said a sophomore in veterinary medicine.

ISU students seem to prefer print columns as the horoscope medium of choice over online and phone-in services.

More than half the students surveyed said they read Linda Black’s horoscope column in the Iowa State Daily. Thirteen percent said they read their horoscope online, and 1 percent said they use a phone-in horoscope service.

A majority of students surveyed said they believe ISU students read horoscopes mainly for entertainment purposes. Fifty-four percent said they think students read horoscopes for fun, while 40 percent said they think students read them partly for advice.

“Students may read them partly because they are fun and partly because they are dealing with a spiritual realm that they don’t really understand,” said a junior in art.

Most students questioned the credibility of these predictions in forecasting daily events or making decisions.

Eighty-two percent said horoscopes “probably” or “definitely” did not predict trends or events in daily lives, and 10 percent said they were unsure about horoscopes’ predictability.

No students said horoscopes could “definitely” predict trends or events in people’s daily lives, and only 8 percent said they probably did.

Students do not completely distrust horoscopes, however.

Twenty-two percent said they have made decisions based on their horoscopes, and 44 percent said their horoscopes have come true for them “sometimes, but not often.”

In addition to providing guidance, horoscopes are supposed to be able to categorize personality types under each astrological sign.

A majority of those surveyed said they “probably” or “definitely” did not help shape peoples’ personalities.

A graduate student in physics urged students to question the nature of horoscopes.

“Most horoscopes are written pretty much without any basis in real science. It’s not something you would want to base decisions on,” he said.

A junior in computer science agreed that horoscopes are unsubstantiated.

“The people who believe in [horoscopes] are fools,” he said.

Horoscopes also didn’t fair well in the love department.

“Hey baby, what’s your sign?” is probably not a popular pick-up line at ISU. Eighty-nine percent of students surveyed said they did not consider compatible astrological signs when choosing a mate.

Most students also said their daily moods were not affected by their horoscopes. Only 20 percent said their moods have been affected by their horoscopes.

“You make your destiny … the stars [don’t],” said a student in psychology.

Overall, students surveyed seem to believe a birthday is just a birthday.