Factors Affecting Extraordinary Belief

Reducing Pseudoscientific and Paranormal Beliefs in University Students Through a Course in Science and Critical Thinking

“…Aarnio and Lindeman (2005) found that university students had fewer paranormal beliefs than vocational school students, and that the difference was largely due to the greater amount of analytical thinking that students were engaged in at the university level. Similarly, Otis and Alcock (1982) found that university professors were more skeptical of paranormal subjects than university students or members of the general public. In another study, as students learned more about psychology, their ability to distinguish between science and pseudoscience increased and subsequently their belief in the paranormal decreased (Bensley et al 2014).…”

Belief in psychic ability and the misattribution hypothesis: A qualitative review

“…Several studies have investigated the relationship between belief in psychic ability and various measures of academic achievement, including participants' course grades, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, exam performance and highest level of educational attainment. Although many of these studies have reported that believers show significantly lower levels of academic performance than disbelievers (Gray, 1987; Messer & Griggs, 1989; Musch & Ehrenberg, 2002; Otis & Alcock, 1982; Pasachoff, Cohen, & Pasachoff, 1970), the overall pattern of results is inconsistent, with some researchers failing to replicate this finding (Thalbourne & Nofi, 1997) and others reporting believers outperforming disbelievers (Emmons & Sobal, 1981; Haraldsson, 1985; Tobacyk, Miller, & Jones, 1984). Studies examining the relationship between belief in psychic ability and scores on intelligence tests have also yielded mixed findings, with some researchers reporting negative correlations (Smith, Foster, & Stovin, 1998), others failing to find this relationship (Thalbourne & Nofi, 1997; Wiseman & Watt, 2002) and, in at least one study, believers obtaining significantly higher scores than disbelievers (Jones, Russell, & Nickel, 1977).…”

“…A small amount of work has also examined belief in psychic ability within academia. Some studies have reported that people with a background in science tend to express lower levels of belief than those involved in the humanities (Happs, 1987; Otis & Alcock, 1982; Padgett, Benassi, & Singer, 1981). However, again, the overall pattern is far from clear‐cut, with one study reporting that students studying the biological sciences held higher levels of paranormal belief than their humanity‐based counterparts (Salter & Routledge, 1971), and other research finding that the majority of scientists teaching at American colleges or universities rating ESP as a ‘likely possibility’ (McClenon, 1982; Wagner & Monnet, 1979).…”

The Making of Extraordinary Psychological Phenomena

“…It was also associated with a new skeptical movement centered on the foundation of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and its organ, the Skeptical Inquirer . Early contributors to the psychology of paranormal belief were members of CSICOP, published in its journal, cited related skeptical literature in their own articles, and discussed such beliefs in very similar ways, that is, as not only wrong but also dangerous (e.g., Alcock, 1981; Alcock & Otis, ; Otis & Alcock, ; Tobacyk, ; Tobacyk & Milford, ).…”

“…Indeed, critics of parapsychology have long sought to discredit such phenomena by making associations with witchcraft and the occult (Collins and Pinch, ). This association now became part of the scales they used to measure beliefs (Jones, Russell, & Nickel, ; Otis & Alcock, ; Tobacyk & Milford, ). The ongoing view that all such phenomena were the product of error and fraud was similarly reflected in the “cognitive deficits” hypothesis they offered, which explained paranormal belief in terms of low intelligence, inadequate education, and so on (Irwin, ).…”