The relationship between religious and paranormal beliefs

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Sandberg ◽  
Bonnie Bowers
Keyword(s):  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship

Relation of Tolerance of Ambiguity to Global and Specific Paranormal Experience

1998 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 807-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Houran ◽  
Carl Williams
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Negative Relation ◽  
Tolerance Of Ambiguity ◽  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
Internal Experience ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Paranormal Experience

We examined the relationship of tolerance of ambiguity to severe global factors and specific types of anomalous or paranormal experience. 107 undergraduate students completed MacDonald's 1970 AT-20 and the Anomalous Experiences Inventory of Kumar, Pekala, and Gallagher. Scores on the five subscales of the Anomalous Experiences Inventory correlated differently with tolerance of ambiguity. Global paranormal beliefs, abilities, experiences, and drug use were positively associated with tolerance of ambiguity, whereas a fear of paranormal experience showed a negative relation. The specific types of anomalous experiences that correlated with tolerance of ambiguity often involved internal or physiological experience, e.g., precognitive dreams, memories of reincarnation, visual apparitions, and vestibular alterations. We generally found no effects of age or sex. These results are consistent with the idea that some paranormal experiences are misattributions of internal experience to external (‘paranormal’) sources, a process analogous to mechanisms underpinning delusions and hallucinations.

scholarly journals Fake news and unfunded beliefs in the post-truth age

Universitas ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 87-108
Author(s):  
Víctor Castillo-Riquelme ◽  
Patricio Hermosilla-Urrea ◽  
Juan P. Poblete-Tiznado ◽  
Christian Durán-Anabalón
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Male Gender ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
The Social ◽  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Relationship

The dissemination of fake news embodies a pressing problem for democracy that is exacerbated by theubiquity of information available on the Internet and by the exploitation of those who, appealing to theemotionality of audiences, have capitalized on the injection of falsehoods into the social fabric. In thisstudy, through a cross-sectional, correlational and non-experimental design, the relationship betweencredibility in the face of fake news and some types of dysfunctional thoughts was explored in a sampleof Chilean university students. The results reveal that greater credibility in fake news is associated withhigher scores of magical, esoteric and naively optimistic thinking, beliefs that would be the meetingpoint for a series of cognitive biases that operate in the processing of information. The highest correlationis found with the paranormal beliefs facet and, particularly, with ideas about the laws of mentalattraction, telepathy and clairvoyance. Significant differences were also found in credibility in fake newsas a function of the gender of the participants, with the female gender scoring higher on average thanthe male gender. These findings highlight the need to promote critical thinking, skepticism and scientificattitude in all segments of society.

Religious People and Paranormal Believers

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kia Aarnio ◽  
Marjaana Lindeman
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Religious People ◽  
Intuitive Thinking ◽  
Analytical Thinking ◽  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
Mystical Experiences ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
The Relationship

This study aimed at clarifying the relationship between religious and paranormal beliefs, on which previous studies have yielded varying results. It was examined whether the relationship varies by the level of religiousness, and individual differences between religious and paranormal believers and sceptics were compared. Finnish participants (N = 3261) filled in an Internet-based questionnaire. The results showed that the relationship between religious and paranormal beliefs was positive among paranormal believers and sceptics but negative among religious people. High intuitive thinking, low analytical thinking, mystical experiences, and close others' positive attitude toward the supernatural distinguished both kinds of believers from the sceptics, while conservation and self-transcendence values distinguished religious people from paranormal believers.

Religiosity and personal beliefs in ocd and anxiety disorders

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 134-134
Author(s):  
A. Agorastos ◽  
S. Randjbar ◽  
C. Muhtz ◽  
L. Jelinek ◽  
M. Kellner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Personal Beliefs ◽  
Magical Ideation ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
Negative Religious Coping ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Relationship

BackgroundIn the last decades the relationship between religiosity/spirituality (R/S), personal beliefs and mental health has been extensively studied, indicating a significant correlation of these variables. However, the specific relation of R/S to anxiety disorders has been less investigated.ObjectiveThe objective of this prospective study is the investigation of the relation of R/S, magical ideation (MI) and paranormal beliefs (PB) to anxiety disorders in general and OCD in particular, in order to specifically determine a possible impact of these variables on psychopathology scores. In addition, the relation between R/S, PB and MI can be systematically investigated.Design & methodUnselected samples with OCD and other anxiety disorders have been equally assessed within the first week after admission with a face-to-face interview including the following instruments: MINI, HAMD, HAMA and Y-BOCS, OCI-R, STAI, Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiosity/Spirituality, Magical Ideation Scale and Revised Paranormal Beliefs Scale. Forty healthy participants with no psychiatric history served as controls.ResultsGroups did not differ in any aspect of R/S, MI, or PB. Almost all scales referring to R/S, PB and MI were positively correlated to each other. The results showed a strong positive correlation between high scores of negative religious coping and high psychopathology scores in depression and anxiety. On the other hand, there was a significant positive correlation between MI scores and initial OCD and anxiety scores.ConclusionThis study verifies a significant correlation between personal beliefs and psychopathology in OCD and anxiety disorders. Implications for further research are discussed.

scholarly journals No Correlation between Perception of Meaning and Positive Schizotypy in a Female College Sample

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ubuka Tagami ◽  
Shu Imaizumi
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Category ◽  
Perceptual Dimension ◽  
Schizotypal Personality ◽  
College Sample ◽  
Individual Variations ◽  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
Japanese Female ◽  
Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire ◽  
Degraded Images ◽  
The Relationship

We visually perceive meaning from stimuli in the external world. There are inter-individual variations in the perception of meaning. A candidate factor to explain this variation is positive schizotypy, which is a personality analogous to positive symptoms of schizophrenia (e.g., visual hallucination). The present study investigated the relationship between positive schizotypy, and the perception of meaning derived from meaningful and meaningless visual stimuli. Positive schizotypy in Japanese female undergraduates (n = 35) was assessed by the Cognitive-Perceptual dimension of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. The participants were asked to report what they saw in noise-degraded images of meaningful objects (Experiment 1) and to respond whether the objects were meaningful (Experiment 2A) and which paired objects were meaningful (Experiment 2B). Positive schizotypy (i.e., Cognitive-Perceptual score) did not correlate with time to detect meaningful objects, and with false-alarm rates, sensitivity, and response criterion in the perception of meaning from meaningful and meaningless stimuli. These results were against our hypothesis and contradicted previous findings. The inconsistencies are discussed in terms of different methods (e.g., stimulus category) and conditions (e.g., paranormal beliefs).

Narcissism and Belief in the Paranormal

2002 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 405-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris A. Roe ◽  
Claire L. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Life After Death ◽  
Paranormal Belief ◽  
Narcissistic Personality ◽  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
Scale Scores ◽  
Australian Sheep ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Belief Scale ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

The present study was designed to assess whether the relationship between narcissistic personality and paranormal belief identified by Tobacyk and Mitchell earlier could be replicated with a general population and to see whether the effect could be found with a narrower definition of paranormal beliefs that focuses only on belief in psychic phenomena. 75 participants completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and two measures of paranormal belief, the Paranormal Belief Scale and the Australian Sheep–Goat Scale. There was no correlation between narcissism and Paranormal Belief Scale scores, but narcissism and Australian Sheep–Goat Scale scores were significantly positively correlated. Of the three subscales to the Australian Sheep–Goat measure, scores for narcissism correlated with belief in ESP and PK but not in Life after death. These relationships were interpreted in terms of need for control.

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