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Lesson 2 Discussion: People Want to Believe in ESP

Many people want to believe (and do believe) in ESP in spite of strong evidence to the contrary. For example, two California psychologists, Barry Singer and Victor Benassi, put on a magic show for a group of college students and asked them whether they thought that ESP was at work. Seventy-five percent said yes. The psychologists repeated their "show" for another group of students and told the students that everything they were doing involved trickery. Fifty percent rejected that explanation and maintained that psychic powers were in use (Marks & Kammann, 1980). In a similar but non-experimental vein, when Uri Geller, the celebrated psychic of the 1970s, appeared on The Tonight Show and was unable to perform any of his telekinetic feats (because his handlers were prevented from tampering with the props that Johnny Carson's staff provided), many people refused to accept that this was evidence of the fraudulence of his claims and continued to believe in his powers. His fame still did not diminish for many years after the fiasco.

These examples strongly suggest that people want to believe in psychic powers.

  1. Why would people want to believe in psychic powers? What benefits might such a belief have?
  2. Is there a certain type of person that would be more likely to believe in psychic powers? What type of person might this be?
  3. Are certain paranormal beliefs more acceptable to the general public than others? Which ones? Why are these more palatable?
  4. Some claim that psychic hotlines, tarot-card readers, palm readers, and the like are "all in good fun" and do not really harm anyone. What do you think about this assertion? Can you think of how such claims might be harmful?