Thinking Style and Paranormal Belief: The Role of Cognitive Biases

Perceived Stress, Thinking Style and Paranormal Belief

Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief.

An analytic cognitive style denotes a propensity to set aside highly salient intuitions when engaging in problem solving. We assess the hypothesis that an analytic cognitive style is associated with a history of questioning, altering, and rejecting (i.e., unbelieving) supernatural claims, both religious and paranormal. In two studies, we examined associations of God beliefs, religious engagemen...

Cognitive biases explain religious belief, paranormal belief, and belief in life's purpose.

Cognitive theories of religion have postulated several cognitive biases that predispose human minds towards religious belief. However, to date, these hypotheses have not been tested simultaneously and in relation to each other, using an individual difference approach. We used a path model to assess the extent to which several interacting cognitive tendencies, namely mentalizing, mind body duali...

Critical thinking ability and belief in the paranormal

A study was conducted to assess the relationship between critical thinking and belief in the paranormal. 180 students from three departments (psychology, arts, computer science) completed one measure of reasoning, the Paranormal Belief Scale (Tobacyk & Milford, 1983), and a scale of paranormal experiences. Half of the subjects filled out the Cornell Critical Thinking Test (Ennis & Millmann, 198...

Paranormal Belief, Religiosity and Cognitive Complexity

Many studies have explored the relationship between paranormal belief and religiosity. Some studies have shown that paranormal belief correlates with religiosity, yet many studies have not supported this association. The first goal of the present investigation therefore was to replicate previous findings. It is also of interest to explore the relationship between paranormal belief and religiosi...