Yet misinformation of this kind can be harmful. For example, in a recent study , I found that merely exposing people to a 2-minute conspiracy video clip significantly decreases acceptance of science, civic engagement, and overall pro-social inclinations. Although I did not measure cognitive style, non-reflective thinkers may be especially vulnerable to such misinformation.
Similarly, the French research team notes that non-reflective individuals may be vulnerable to scams. Indeed, millions of dollars are made every year by people who falsely claim that they can read your mind or talk to deceased family members.
Is there any way to protect people from falling prey to such magical thinking? There is some evidence. Research has suggested that these type of intuitive beliefs often interact with emotional processes.
Accordingly, a recent study showed that priming people to think more reflectively reduces tendencies to engage in, for example, conspiratorial thinking. The real trick is figuring out when to rely a little more on your gut feelings and when to draw a little more on your analytical powers.
Although our intuition serves us well in some cases, we may all benefit from a little more reflective thinking before we decide to accept uncanny explanations about the nature of reality. Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology?
And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook. Gareth, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, is the series editor of Best American Infographics and can be reached at garethideas AT gmail. Sander van der Linden is a social-psychologist and lecturer at Princeton University.
His research explores the psychology of social influence, judgment, and decision-making. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Count how many times the people in white shirts pass the ball. How many did you see? Partway through the video, a person in a gorilla suit walks through the players. Did you see it? About half of all viewers who count passes while watching the video miss the gorilla completely.
If you too missed the gorilla, you experienced inattentional blindness. You were likely in a state called absorption. He is a psychologist in England at Goldsmiths University of London. Some people are more likely to become absorbed than others. And these people also report higher levels of paranormal beliefs, he says, including beliefs in ghosts. How could these things be related?
Some strange experiences that people blame on ghosts involve unexplained sounds or movements. A window may seem to open all by itself. In one study, French and his colleagues found that people with higher levels of paranormal beliefs and higher tendencies to get absorbed are also more likely to experience inattentional blindness.
They also tend to have a more limited working memory. If you have trouble keeping lots of information in your memory or paying attention to more than one thing at once, then you risk missing sensory cues from the environment around you.
And you might blame any misperceptions that result on a ghost. Anyone may experience sleep paralysis, hallucinations, pareidolia or inattentional blindness. But not everyone turns to ghosts or other supernatural beings as a way to explain these experiences. Even as a child, Dom never thought he had come face to face with a real ghost. He went online and asked questions about what might have happened. He used critical thinking. And he got the answers he needed.
When an episode happens now, he uses a technique that Jalal developed. He just focuses on his breathing, tries to relax as much as possible and waits for it to pass.
I just sleep and enjoy sleeping. She wondered if people with stronger critical-thinking skills might be less likely to believe in the paranormal. So she and her mentor, psychologist Philip Tyson, recruited students for a study about their paranormal beliefs. The students majored in a wide range of different fields. Students with higher grades tended to have lower levels of paranormal beliefs, this study found.
And students in the physical sciences, engineering or math tended not to believe as strongly as those studying the arts. This trend also has been seen in research by others. However, previous research has shown that science students tend to have stronger critical-thinking skills than art students. And thinking critically can help you scout out likely causes for an unusual experience without involving ghosts or aliens, or Bigfoot.
Even among science students and working scientists, though, paranormal beliefs persist. So if someone tells you a ghost story this Halloween, enjoy it. But remain skeptical. Think about other possible explanations for what was described. Remember that your mind may fool you into experiencing spooky things. Kathryn Hulick has been a regular contributor to Science News for Students since Quarto, October 1, , pages.
By Kathryn Hulick October 31, at am. One night, a big thud prompted her to grab her camera. This was the first picture she took. Other photos she took on that and later nights showed nothing unusual. Does this story make it seem like ghosts exist? Or is the glowing figure a flash of light that the camera accidentally captured?
Clare Llewellyn-Bailey. Wiseman: No, I found they're very good at fooling people —in that case they have very special capabilities, but in deception. Here, paranormal belief crosses over from being fun into something serious. People go to psychics because they have problems, whether personal or financial, but you're talking to somebody who, unlike a counselor who would give you to tools to solve the problems, they just give you advice.
You become reliant on them. And there's no way to know if they're giving good advice. They're not trained counselors. There's no regulation in the industry. So you're putting your life into somebody else's hands. Wiseman: There's the notion of these general statements which are true of everyone.
Like, "you have a lot of unexpressed creativity. Or sometimes there are double-headers like, "sometimes you enjoy being the center of the party and sometimes you like staying at home with a book. There's this notion of feedback where they'll say something like, "You're going to be travelling," and if they get no response they'll say that maybe it's a small weekend trip, but if you start nodding along, it must be a big trip.
With all of these things, you're doing the work for them. If anything, they should be paying you. LiveScience: Your book is published in the U. Is there a difference between the paranormal belief in U. Wiseman: I don't know quite what causes it, I suspect it's cultural, but you're looking at around 40 to 50 percent of people having an alleged paranormal experience in the U.
Something big is going on. I suspect that part of it is programming: Books, radio and television pushing the psychic agenda. Plus of course science literacy is higher in the U. There were no serious offers from the major publishers.
That's why we put it out on Kindle. LiveScience: So for those of us with runaway imaginations, do you have any hints on how to talk yourself out of freaking out when you're home alone and the house is creaking and you're sure there's something right behind you?
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