The effect of pseudo-psychic demonstrations as dependent on belief in paranormal phenomena and suggestibility

Abstract

This paper describes two experiments which investigate the effects of pseudo-psychic demonstrations (i.e. conjuring tricks which could be misinterpreted as genuine paranormal phenomena). In the first study, a demonstration of a supposed medium was presented to 91 subjects individually, in which the playing card selected by a subject was identified ‘‘telepathically’’. It was found that hypnotic suggestibility and belief in paranormal phenomena had a large effect on how the demonstrations were assessed. Suggestible persons or believers in paranormal phenomena were more impressed by a phenomenon and were more likely to rule out the possibility of fraud than were persons who were less suggestible or believed less in paranormal phenomena. In the second study, two trick demonstrations were shown. In each case, half the subjects (n=68) were given the information that this was a magic trick, and the other half were told that this was a paranormal demonstration by a medium. The results with respect to belief in paranormal phenomena confirm the results of Study 1. Believers in paranormal phenomena, as compared with sceptics, tended to view the demonstrations as examples of paranormal phenomena, regardless of the information they had received, they tended to rule out the possibility of fraud and had a greater tendency to react with amazement. Interrogative suggestibility had no effect. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.