Background: Paranormal beliefs are common among patients with mental illness. Such beliefs may mediate conceptualization of illness, treatment satisfaction and medication adherence. Objective: To study the level of paranormal beliefs and its relationship with explanatory models, treatment adherence and satisfaction using standardized assessment tool. Methods: Eighty nine patients with mental il...

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 beliefs and magical thinking exist in the public, and amongst university students. Researchers have found that media can influence such beliefs. A 2012 study suggested pseudoscientific rationales can influence acceptance of reported paranormal phenomena. Using a paranormal belief survey and controlled experiment this work explores the paranormal beliefs and test the effects of three ...

This study examined connections between paranormal beliefs and educational level, discipline, length of education, gender, and analytical and intuitive thinking. Finnish students (N = 3141) from 14 university and six vocational school disciplines filled in an Internet-based questionnaire. The results showed that university students had less paranormal beliefs than vocational school students, wh...

This paper describes two experiments which investigate the effects of pseudo-psychic demonstrations (i.e. conjuring tricks which could be misinterpreted as genuine paranormal phenomena). In the first study, a demonstration of a supposed medium was presented to 91 subjects individually, in which the playing card selected by a subject was identified ‘‘telepathically’’. It was found that hypnotic ...

The study of pseudoscience and the paranormal is an important but neglected aspect of science education. Given the widespread acceptance of pseudoscientific and paranormal beliefs, science educators need to take seriously the problem of how these can be combated. I propose teaching science students to critically evaluate the claims of pseudoscience and the paranormal, something that can be acco...

This research investigated how pseudoscientific, paranormal, and conspiracy beliefs relate to each other. Preliminary research indicates that holding one type of unsubstantiated belief predicts holding other types of belief (Lobato et al., 2014). We administered a survey (n=420) asking about belief in specific pseudoscientific, paranormal, and conspiracy claims. We also examined cognitive predi...

This study investigated the role of reality testing deficits in the formation of belief in the paranormal. In the present context reality testing is taken to entail the person’s inclination to test critically the logical plausibility of his or her beliefs. An earlier study of this relationship by the author (Irwin, in press) was partially compromised by the use of an index of reality testing de...

The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between the Five Factor Model of personality and the belief in the paranormal. Participants (N=307) were students from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. The measures used were the IPIP version of the Five Factor Model questionnaire (Goldberg et al., 2006) along with the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (Tobacyk, 1988). The factor analysis of...

Sensation seeking is the tendency to pursue sensory pleasure and excitement. A body of research indicates that sensation seeking may contribute to paranormal/anomalous experiences. Examination of relations between sensations seeking and paranormal beliefs has resulted in a limited body of research. This paper hypothesizes that both – sensation seeking and paranormal/anomalous experiences – will...