title: INTEREST IN ASTROLOGY AND PHRENOLOGY OVER TWO CENTURIES: A GOOGLE NGRAM STUDY.
abstract: The Google Ngram Viewer shows the frequency of words in a large corpus of books over two centuries. In this study, the names of two pseudosciences, astrology and phrenology, were compared. An interesting pattern emerged. While the level of interest in astrology remained relatively stable over the course of two centuries, interest in phrenology rose rapidly in the early 1800s but then declined. Reasons for this pattern are discussed.
authors.affiliation: 1 Cleveland State University.
authors.forename: Jeremy E C
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Genovese
mesh_terms: D001255:Astrology / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D010792:Phrenology / Q000266:history*