The role of personality in having a ghost experience and the role of personality and experience in the development of ghost belief

Abstract

The goal of this project was to understand who might have a ghost experience and how that experience might influence belief. We measured three types of ghost experience (personal, close other's, and story), ghost belief, and twenty-five personality dimensions to evaluate which personality variables predict belief in ghosts and whether experience mediates the personality belief relationship. We found that schizotypy, absorption, anomalous perception, transliminality, sensation seeking, openness, and private self-consciousness predicted all three types of experience. Variables that more strongly predicted experience generally affected belief in ghosts via an indirect pathway, suggesting a role for experience in creating belief for some types of personality. These results may be useful for developing belief interventions in that they identify who might have experience-based beliefs and thus might be influenced by experience-based interventions.