What Are People's Beliefs And Attitudes Toward Paranormal Phenomena
McGarry, James J.; Newberry, Benjamin H.; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 41(4), Oct 1981. pp. 725-736.
In this study, people's beliefs and attitudes toward paranormal phenomena are related to a person's locus of control in four different groups. The way the people in these groups were put together was by their involvement in paranormal practices. The subjects all received a questionnaire asking questions about their beliefs in paranormal phenomenon, locus of control, sociopolitical attitudes, and demographic characteristics. It was predicted and later confirmed that paranormal beliefs increased as involvement it paranormal activity increased, internal locus increased as belief increased, and that there is a clear relationship between locus of control and involvement. Around the planning period of the experiment, the author learned about a psychic convention that was to be held in Niagara Falls, NY. The fair attracted many psychics and people interested in psychic phenomena, and the psychics were paid to come give readings at this convention. The sponsors of this fair also distributed a magazine called You And ESP with …show more content…
The psychic readers were shown to believe the strongest in psychic phenomenon, with the subscribers close behind. The attendees of the fair and the students showed significantly less belief than the psychic readers and subscribers. The psychic readers also showed the most internal locus, and again, were followed closely by the magazine subscribers. The attendees and students showed a significant amount of external locus. The locus also was shown to be affected directly by the involvement in paranormal phenomena, whereas psychic readers were significantly had more internally based locus than the subscribers, who showed significantly more internal locus than the attendees, who showed more internal locus than the
In this study, people's beliefs and attitudes toward paranormal phenomena are related to a person's locus of control in four different groups. The way the people in these groups were put together was by their involvement in paranormal practices. The subjects all received a questionnaire asking questions about their beliefs in paranormal phenomenon, locus of control, sociopolitical attitudes, and demographic characteristics. It was predicted and later confirmed that paranormal beliefs increased as involvement it paranormal activity increased, internal locus increased as belief increased, and that there is a clear relationship between locus of control and involvement. Around the planning period of the experiment, the author learned about a psychic convention that was to be held in Niagara Falls, NY. The fair attracted many psychics and people interested in psychic phenomena, and the psychics were paid to come give readings at this convention. The sponsors of this fair also distributed a magazine called You And ESP with …show more content…
The psychic readers were shown to believe the strongest in psychic phenomenon, with the subscribers close behind. The attendees of the fair and the students showed significantly less belief than the psychic readers and subscribers. The psychic readers also showed the most internal locus, and again, were followed closely by the magazine subscribers. The attendees and students showed a significant amount of external locus. The locus also was shown to be affected directly by the involvement in paranormal phenomena, whereas psychic readers were significantly had more internally based locus than the subscribers, who showed significantly more internal locus than the attendees, who showed more internal locus than the