Paranormal psychic believers and skeptics: a large-scale test of the cognitive differences hypothesis

Abstract

Belief in paranormal psychic phenomena is widespread in the United States, with over a third of the population believing in extrasensory perception (ESP). Why do some people believe, while others are skeptical? According to the cognitive differences hypothesis, individual differences in the way people process information about the world can contribute to the creation of psychic beliefs, such as differences in memory accuracy (e.g., selectively remembering a fortune teller's correct predictions) or analytical thinking (e.g., relying on intuition rather than scrutinizing evidence). While this hypothesis is prevalent in the literature, few have attempted to empirically test it. Here, we provided the most comprehensive test of the cognitive differences hypothesis to date. In 3 studies, we used online screening to recruit groups of strong believers and strong skeptics, matched on key demographics (age, sex, and years of education). These groups were then tested in laboratory and online settings using multiple cognitive tasks and other measures. Our cognitive testing showed that there were no consistent group differences on tasks of episodic memory distortion, autobiographical memory distortion, or working memory capacity, but skeptics consistently outperformed believers on several tasks tapping analytical or logical thinking as well as vocabulary. These findings demonstrate cognitive similarities and differences between these groups and suggest that differences in analytical thinking and conceptual knowledge might contribute to the development of psychic beliefs. We also found that psychic belief was associated with greater life satisfaction, demonstrating benefits associated with psychic beliefs and highlighting the role of both cognitive and noncognitive factors in understanding these individual differences.

Gender role orientation, thinking style preference and facets of adult paranormality: A mediation analysis

“…Instead, the former reflects a lower preference for rational thinking and, by implication, a less reasoned (critical) appraisal of seemingly inexplicable concepts. This interpretation is consistent with Risen's (2016) claim that paranormal intuitions once "activated" are either accepted through avoidance of critical evaluation else rejected because of it (see also Gray & Gallo, 2016;Irwin, Dagnall & Drinkwater, 2013).…”

“…Evidence of a triple mediated relationship between a psychological masculinity and lower paranormal fear via more intuitive thinking, then more anomalous experiences then more self-decreed anomalous ability, suggests gender role may be a less important factor in shaping adult paranormality than thinking style. Corresponding evidence that the same masculinity-fear relationship is also mediated by heightened preference for rational thinking suggests at least part of the reason why masculinized individuals report being unafraid of allegedly paranormal concepts is that, based on their engendered self-concept, they are more likely to engage in reasoned (critical) evaluation of otherwise inexplicable events (Gray & Gallo, 2016;Irwin, et al, 2013;Risen, 2016). Evidence that both feminine and masculine identities were (near) significant predictors of anomalous fear net of thinking style and all other (mediating) facets of adult paranormal (depicted by c' paths in Table 4) offers further support for this interpretation.…”

Mental health status among family members of health care workers in Ningbo, China, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak: a cross-sectional study

“…All participants were informed of the study procedure and were invited to sign an informed consent form online upon their recruitment. Participants who passed the initial self-screening phase were asked to complete the self-administered questionnaires [ 25 ]. Of the 882 participants recruited for this study, 29 participants were excluded because they provided incomplete information, and eight were excluded because their family members took a vacation during the study period.…”

Paranormal belief, thinking style preference and susceptibility to confirmatory conjunction errors

“…However, the relationship between preferred thinking style and adult paranormality has not always been straightforward with a number of studies finding higher levels of both analytic-rational and intuitive-experiential thinking were associated with a more pronounced paranormal worldview (e.g., Majima, 2015;Wolfradt, Oubaid, Straube, Bischoff & Mischo, 1999) with others finding no thinking style  paranormal belief association (e.g., Gray & Gallo, 2016). Nevertheless, most work suggests adoption of intuitive-experiential (System 1) thinking is a significant factor in shaping adults' paranormal worldview (French & Stone, 2014).…”