Paranormal Beliefs – Summary Report of Statistical Analysis



Paranormal Beliefs – Summary Report of Statistical Analysis

Table of Contents

Summary 3

Test development 3

Sample 3

Analysis 3

Annex 1 – Means and Standard Deviations for General Population 5

Annex 2 – Means and Standard Deviations for Gender 6

Annex 3 – Graphical results for overall paranormal belief - Gender 7

Annex 4 – Post-hoc Analysis for Gender T-test 8

Annex 5 – Means and Standard Deviations for Age 9

Annex 6 – Graphical results for overall paranormal belief - Age 10

Annex 7 – Post-hoc Analysis for Age Anova 11

Annex 8 – Means and Standard Deviations for Ethnicity 14

Annex 9 – Graphical results for overall paranormal belief - Ethnicity 15

Annex 10 – Post-hoc Analysis for Ethnicity Anova 16

Annex 11 – Means and Standard Deviations for Education 23

Annex 12 – Graphical results for overall paranormal belief - Education 25

Annex 13 – Post-hoc Analysis for Education Anova 26

Summary

Test development

The aim of the Paranormal Beliefs study was to obtain an understanding of people’s paranormal beliefs in relation to gender, age, ethnicity, and education level. Research on the different facets of paranormal belief (i.e. the type of phenomenon that would be categorized as supernatural) was conducted, resulting in the development of 10 factors to assess level of belief: the afterlife, religious belief, superstitions, folklore/myths/legends, fate, witchcraft, psychic beliefs, telekinesis, aliens/UFOs, and karma. Questions were in self-assessment format (“Breaking a mirror brings 7 years of bad luck”, “I believe in reincarnation”) using 3-point Likert scale (“Strongly agree” to “Strongly disagree”). The test consisted of 67 questions.

Sample

The sample that took the test was uncontrolled; the subjects self-selected to take the assessment and opted in to participate in the validation study. All validation items were gathered through self-report; the validation questionnaire was opt-in. With regards to validation questions where the number of subjects in the validation sample was not equally balanced (i.e. the n for some groups was very high), a smaller, random sample was selected from the large groups whenever possible, in order to level out the numbers and conduct the analyses effectively.

Data was collected from over 22,000 test-takers; 8624 women and 3732 men took the test (9964 did not indicate their gender). Ages ranged from below 17 to 40+, with the majority in the below 17 and 18-24 age groups.

Descriptive statistics reveal an overall mean of 51, indicating a moderate belief in paranormal phenomenon. The Cronbach’s Alpha for the assessment was 0.96.

Analysis

An independent samples t-test revealed significant differences between men and women on every paranormal belief (See Annex 2 for means and standard deviations). Women believed more strongly in the afterlife (t(7462) = 24.68, p < 0.001), folklore/myths/legends (t(7462) = 23.51, p < 0.001), fate (t(7462) = 26.89, p < 0.001), witchcraft (t(7462) = 14.89, p < 0.001), telekinesis (t(7462) = 10.21, p < 0.001), and karma (t(7462) = 22.24, p < 0.001). They also possessed stronger superstitious t(7462) = 16.43, p < 0.001), religious t(7462) = 16.71, p < 0.001) and psychic beliefs t(7462) = 25.20, p < 0.001). The only exception was the belief in aliens/UFOs, where it was the men who significantly outscored the women (t(7462) = -4.474, p < 0.001).

A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was calculated on participants’ beliefs in relation to age, education level, and ethnicity. The age ANOVA (See Annex 4 for means and standard deviations) revealed that overall belief in the paranormal differed significantly across age groups, particularly between the young and old (F(4,7352) = 14.28, p = 0.000). Tukey post-hoc comparisons of the five age groups (Below 17, 18-24, 25-29, 30-39, 40+) indicate that paranormal belief tended to increase with age. This is particularly true in regards to belief in the afterlife (F(4,7352) = 16.33, p = 0.000), religious belief (F(4,7352) = 15.85, p = 0.000), and psychic belief (F(4,7352) = 25.63, p = 0.000).

A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) of differences among ethnic groups (See Annex 6 for means and standard deviations) revealed significant differences on several paranormal aspects, with Native Americans generally outscoring most groups on nearly all beliefs. The Afterlife ANOVA showed a significant difference between groups (F(6,1023) = 2.92, p = 0.008), with Native Americans marginally outscoring (p ................
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