The "Mars Effect"
A French Test of Over 1,000 Sports Champions

Scientists often test the claims of astrology. Efforts to prove the claims fall short. The one exception, according to backers of astrology, is the work of Michel and Francoise Gauquelin. This title presents a study that examines the birth data for 1,066 French sports champions culled from two leading Who's Who anthologies focusing on athletes.

Seven distinguished French scientists, representing the French Committee for the Study of Paranormal Phenomena, have published a study in which they examine the birth data for 1,066 French sports champions culled from two leading Who's Who anthologies focusing on athletes. They find no statistical evidence for the claim that there is a Mars effect. Moreover, they attribute the so-called effect to selective bias on the part of the chief proponent of the claim, the late Michel Gauquelin (d. 1991), who had attempted to persuade them to add names to or delete names from their study.