Critical Thinking and Belief in the Paranormal

Abstract

The critical thinking ability of 13 believers and 13 nonbelievers in paranormal phenomena was examined in two studies. In the first study, believers and skeptics were given Watson and Glaser's (1964) Critical Thinking Appraisal Scale as well as Trodahl and Powell's (1965) Dogmatism Scale. Skeptics showed a significantly higher level of critical thinking ability than believers and were significantly less dogmatic than believers. A second study was carried out to evaluate the critical thinking ability of believers and skeptics on a task dealing with the paranormal. 18 believers and 17 skeptics were asked to evaluate critically either a research article on a paranormal phenomenon (psychokinesis) or an almost identical article on a nonparanormal phenomenon (pain tolerance). It was anticipated that believers would show a bias in favor of the paranormal article; however, results indicated that believers and nonbelievers were equally critical of the paranormal article.