The Psychology of Paranormal Belief

1
The Psychology of Paranormal Belief

• What makes a person a believer or a skeptic?

2
(No Transcript)
3
(No Transcript)
4
What is paranormal belief (PB)?

• For parapsychologists, at its simplest the belief
  to a greater or lesser extent in anomalous or
  unusual forms of communication, existence or
  influence.
• Can be extended by some to include new age
  beliefs, alternative medicine, UFOs etc.

5
Origins of beliefs

• Lay beliefs probably arise out of experiences and
  perhaps preferential modes of cognition
• Experiential/metaphorical thinking
• Notions of soul/spirit in older languages
  indicate conceptualisation of beliefs
• Link of breath with Spirit (re-spiration), Qi
  in Chinese

6
Metaphors and lay beliefs

• Intrusions entity encounters assumption of
  otherplace (afterlife)
• Transmissions assumption of radio-like
  communication in ESP/PK
• Connections more holistic or depth explanations
  of paranormal phenomena

7
Scientists beliefs

• McClenon (1982) A survey of elite scientists
  found that scientists showed only 3.8 thought
  ESP was an established fact
• Belief was lowest among psychologists than other
  scientists
• Belief was based upon personal experience, and
  TV, while skepticism was related to a priori
  reasoning and reading the literature (although
  most of it seems old (Rhine)

8
Why is PB so important?

• Performance increases on ESP tests
• This influence on performance can be turned
  upside down (Lovitts, 1981)
• Belief of the researcher seems to influence
  findings (Experimenter effect) very
  problematical (see Wiseman and Schlitz, 1997-
  staring study)
• E-Effects in psychology see also Rosenthals
  classic study

9
How is PB measured?

• Simplest way (Schmeidlers criterion) single
  question
• Sheep-Goat a dimension of belief
• e.g. Australian S-G scale
• Multiple factor models
• e.g. Tobacyks PBS, AEI Pekala et al.

10
Anomalous experiences inventory (Pekala, Kumar
and Gallagher, 1994)

• Anomalous/paranormal experience
• Anomalous/paranormal belief
• Anomalous paranormal ability
• Fear of anomalous/paranormal
• Use of drugs/alcohol

11
The structure of PB

• Tobacyks PBS (1988) seven factors
• Trad relig,
• Psi belief,
• Precognition,
• Spiritualism,
• Witchcraft,
• Extra lifeforms
• Superstition

12
The wide structure of PB

• Grimmer and White (1990)
• Asked about 46 issues of PB e.g. Bermuda
  traiangle, acupuncture, UFOs, Pyramid power,
  Telepathy, etc.
• Obtained 7 factors

13
Grimmer and White
14
How many factors are there? Lawrence (1995)

• Tobacyks PBS (1988) seven factors
• Trad relig,
• Psi belief,
• Precognition,
• Spiritualism,
• Witchcraft,
• Extra lifeforms
• Superstition

Constituted by 3 PK questions and 1 Clairvoyance
Why separate?
Irrelevant?
15
Why believe?

• Skeptical point of view Paranormal belief is a
  way of making sense of life (see Alcock, 1981
  Schumaker, 1990)
• Could see the disbelief of skeptics as reflecting
  a need for a different kind of order
• Different ways of constructing the world (see
  Nisbett, 2003) on differences between Easterners
  and Westerners

16
Personality and PB

• Imaginative Absorption
• Fantasy Proneness
• Magical Ideation (Schizotypy)
• Cognitive deficits
• Openness to experience
• Tolerance of ambiguity

17
PB and psychopathology

• Psychological adjustment (Irwin, 1991), found
  strong PB subjects scored sig higher on Langners
  mental health scale than other believers.
• Transliminality (Thalbourne, 2000) schizotypal,
  psychotic, extroverted, neurotic, prone to
  fantasy, prone to absorption, sensitive to
  environmental stimulation, prone to panic attacks
• Constituents of Transliminality PB and PE,
  creativity, mystical, magical ideation, manic
  like experience, absorption, fantasy proneness,
  hyperesthesia, attitude to dream interpretation

18
Irwins 1992 trauma model (after Lawrence (1994)
Paranormal belief
Fantasy encouragement
Fantasy proneness
Illusion of control
Need for sense of control
Coping with uncontrollable life events
Childhood trauma
Paranormal experience
19
Trauma Model revised Lawrence et al. 1995
Childhood trauma
Childhood fantasy
Paranormal belief
Paranormal experience
20
Conclusions Is PB bad?

• Findings need to be seen in the light of
  characteristic western mind set
• PB seems to be in good company with creativity,
  as well as psychopathology (PP)
• Cognitive deficits and PP can be seen as
  undesirable from a rational position but a normal
  aspect of cognition from a less biased
  perspective