Psychological characteristics of believers in the paranormal: A replicative study

ABSTRACT: This study attempts to replicate a variety of previous findings pertaining to the psychological characteristics of believers and disbelievers in the paranormal. The 13-item Australian Sheep-Goat Scale, the 3-item Icelandic Sheep-Goat Scale, and a number of other psychological questionnaire measures were administered to 242 undergraduate psychology students at the University of Adelaide. Depending on which measure of the sheep-goat variable was used, believers in the paranormal were found to score significantly higher than disbelievers on the Wilson-Patterson Religion-Puritanism Scale; Haraldsson’s 8-item Relig-iosity Scale; the As inventory of experiences predictive of hypnotizability; measures of vivid spiritual experience; and frequency of reading about Eastern religions or theosophy, of dream recall, and of dream interpretation; believers scored significantly lower than disbelievers on Mosher’s Sex-Guilt Scale. As expected, believers were no more conservative overall than disbelievers, nor were they more likely to read the Bible or to have been religiously affiliated during their upbringing. Contrary to prediction, believers were no more likely than disbe-lievers to have a religious affiliation at the time of the survey. Scientists in general, and psychologists in particular, have long hel