Does Poor Understanding of Physical World Predict Religious and Paranormal Beliefs?

Abstract

SummaryAlthough supernatural beliefs often paint a peculiar picture about the physical world, the possibility that the beliefs might be based on inadequate understanding of the non‐social world has not received research attention. In this study (N = 258), we therefore examined how physical‐world skills and knowledge predict religious and paranormal beliefs. The results showed that supernatural beliefs correlated with all variables that were included, namely, with low systemizing, poor intuitive physics skills, poor mechanical ability, poor mental rotation, low school grades in mathematics and physics, poor common knowledge about physical and biological phenomena, intuitive and analytical thinking styles, and in particular, with assigning mentality to non‐mental phenomena. Regression analyses indicated that the strongest predictors of the beliefs were overall physical capability (a factor representing most physical skills, interests, and knowledge) and intuitive thinking style. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Talking to the Dead in the Classroom: How a Supposedly Psychic Event Impacts Beliefs and Feelings

“…Likewise, we can assess PBrelated behavior with cognitive measures that have previously been associated with enhanced PBs. Examples of such measures include (1) tasks that show a tendency to easily associate things or events (Bressan, 2002;Rogers, Fisk, & Wiltshire, 2011;Rogers, Qualter, & Wood, 2016), (2) the propensity to see meaningful patterns in random noise (Blackmore & Moore, 1994;Brugger et al, 1993;Riekki, Lindeman, Aleneff, Halme, & Nuortimo, 2013), (3) attenuated reasoning abilities (Denovan, Dagnall, Drinkwater, & Parker, 2018;Lawrence & Peters, 2004;Lindeman & Svedholm-Häkkinen, 2016), and (4) repetition avoidance (Brugger, Landis, & Regard, 1990). Brugger et al (1990) assessed repetition avoidance by asking participants to repeatedly imagine throwing a dice and to report the number they imagined on top of the dice (mental dice task).…”

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“…The positive relationship between Faith in Intuition and paranormal beliefs has typically been strong, with correlations usually ranging from .35 to .50. The association between need for cognition and paranormal beliefs is negative but weaker, with correlations seldom reaching a value higher than -.25 (e.g., Epstein et al, 1996;Lindeman & Svedholm-Häkkinen, 2016;Lobato, Mendoza, Sims, & Chin, 2014;.…”

Scientific reasoning ability does not predict scientific views on evolution among religious individuals

“…Others have suggested that a poor understanding of the physical world and intuitive thinking styles correlate with an acceptance of paranormal and religious explanations over scientific explanations (Lindeman and Svedholm-Häkkinen 2016). The process skills involved in science have been defined in many different ways, including scientific process skills (OECD 1999), procedural skills (e.g., Gott and Duggan 1994), experimental and investigative science (National Curriculum;DOE 1995), habits of mind (AAAS 1993), scientific inquiry abilities (National Academy of Sciences 1994), scientific reasoning skills (Lawson et al 2000), or critical thinking skills (Bransford et al 2000;NSF 2000).…”

“…Religious views, while an integral part of our cultural richness, have been negatively associated with the acceptance of evolution in several studies (Anderson 2007;Andersson and Wallin 2006) and a poorer understanding of the physical world (Lindeman and Svedholm-Häkkinen 2016). For individuals who have a strong religious background, science instructors may face difficulty overcoming these barriers using existing pedagogical approaches.…”