000111 PSY4002/PCF5013

Do Extraverts Believe in the Paranormal More Than Introverts?

Abstract

There is a large amount of research into the connection between paranormal beliefs
and personality types (e.g. Peltzer, 2002), however much of it has produced contrasting
findings. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that those who score high in
paranormal beliefs are more likely to be extroverts than introverts. Fifty seven participants
each filled out a questionnaire on their paranormal beliefs and one on their personality types.
No significant effects were found, suggesting that personality is not a factor that influences
paranormal beliefs. However these finding may have occurred due to the participants being
psychology students since research shows that training in the scientific method produces
differences in paranormal beliefs (Diaz-Vilela and Alvarez-Gonzalez, 2004).
000111 PSY4002/PCF5013

“The term paranormal is used to describe phenomena which, if authentic, violate basic
limiting principles of science” (Peltzer, 2002, p391). In other words, paranormal psychology
is the investigation of beliefs about and evidence of phenomena which defy a natural
explanation. Evaluating a person’s level of paranormal belief is most often done through the
use of questionnaires. There are many such questionnaires but Tobacyk’s 25 item
questionnaire is probably the most commonly used. It enquires about belief in aspects of the
paranormal, such as: religious belief, superstition, spiritualism and more (Tobacyk &
Milford, 1983; as cited by Haraldsson & Houtkooper, 1996).

In psychological studies of belief in the paranormal, research has focussed on

explaining why participants hold those beliefs. Personality has been an area of interest when
looking at what factors make a person more likely to believe in this type of phenomena (Irwin
& Green, 1998-99; Tobacyk & Milford, 1983; Tobacyk & Mitchell, 1987; Wolfradt, 1997; as
cited by Auton, Pope and Seegar, 2003). In a study of personality and paranormal belief by
Auton, Pope and Seegar (2003), a personality research form was used to determine a range of
personality traits. However, defendence was the only personality type to display any
significance difference between believers and non-believers. Defendence is linked to
aggression and indicates a reluctance to engage in alternative viewpoints from one’s own.

Although theories about the existing components of personality vary, one approach is
to distinguish people in terms of introversion and extraversion (Dolliver, 1994).
Characteristics of an individual who measures high on the extraversion scale could include:
“sociable, lively, active, carefree, dominant and assertive” (Francis, Williams & Robbins,
2010, p.183).

There has been research to suggest a link between extraversion and belief in the
paranormal, such as that by Peltzer (2002) where a positive association was established
between extraversion and paranormal belief scale. Additionally a significant but small
correlation was found involving extraversion and unconventional paranormal belief (Francis,
Williams & Robbins, 2010) with the use of the short form Junior Eysenck Personality
Questionnaire to determine personality type (Francis & Pearson,1988, as cited in Francis,
Williams & Robbins, 2010). However, these findings have not been found consistently.
Williams, Francis and Robbins (2007) found no significant relationship in a study of
adolescents in Wales. Moreover Svensen, White and Caird (1992) hypothesized no
relationship to be present between extraversion and religiosity (a form of paranormal belief)
and found evidence to support this in the study. Irwin (1985; as cited in Gow, Lang & Chant,
000111 PSY4002/PCF5013

2004) also did not find a link between extraversion and those who claimed to have had an out
of body experience.

Therefore, this study aimed to strengthen the literature available on this topic and test
the hypothesis that those who were classified as extraverts are more likely to believe in the
paranormal.

Method

Design
The experiment was carried out using independent measures design. The first
independent variable was personality with two levels: extrovert and introvert; and the second
independent variable was paranormal belief with two levels: believer and non believer. The
dependent variable was the frequency of participants in each group.

Participants
An opportunity sample of 57 students was used, 16 of which were male and 41
female. The sample was made up of first year Psychology students from St Mary’s University
College, Twickenham. The mean age of the participants was 21.7, ages ranged from 18 to 38
years old.

Materials
Two questionnaires were used: the paranormal belief survey (IPSOS MORI, 1998)
and the personality scale (Thomson, 1988), they were administered via the internet using the
Bristol online survey hosting website.
The paranormal belief survey (see appendix 1), consists of 23 items. Participants were
asked to indicate their beliefs in phenomena such as tarot cards, ESP, and life after death on a
five point Likert scale with the options: definitely disagree, mostly disagree, unsure, mostly
agree, and definitely agree. Responses were scored from 1 to 5 and averaged across all items.
Participants who scored equal to or below 2.5 on the paranormal belief scale were classified
as low level or non-believers, and above 2.5 as high level or believers.
Thompson’s (1988) introversion/extraversion personality questionnaire consisted of
14 forced choice items (see appendix 2). For each item participants were asked to choose
which of two statements described them best, for example: I get restless when I’m alone too
long vs I get restless when I don’t have enough time to myself. A score of 2 was given for
000111 PSY4002/PCF5013

agreeing to extravert statements and 1 for introvert statements. This was then averaged across
all items and participants scoring equal to or below 1.5 were considered introvert and above
1.5 as extrovert.

Procedure
Ethical approval was obtained, the participants were briefed and written consent was
gained (see appendices 3 and 4). Participants were asked to complete the online
questionnaires, indicating their paranormal beliefs and personality types. Finally participants
were thanked and debriefed.

Results

Questionnaire responses were collated for all participants (N=57) and assigned to
believer/non-believer and extrovert/introvert criterion by an overall average scoring per case
(see appendix 5 for raw data and appendix 6 for SPSS output).
Table 1.
Observed frequencies of participants high and low in paranormal belief by personality type

Paranormal Belief
High Low Total
Personality Introvert 26 14 40
Extrovert 10 7 17
Total 36 21 57

The observed frequencies of participants did not differ significantly from the expected
frequencies. This was confirmed using a Chi Squared Test: Chi2 (4, N=57) = .196, ns. The
distribution of participants was not affected by their personality or paranormal beliefs.

Discussion

The results were not found to be non-significant, in other words, there is no link
between extraversion and higher likelihood of belief in the paranormal. Therefore this
supports the previous research that did not find a link between extraversion and paranormal
belief (Williams, Francis & Robbins, 2007; Svensen, White & Caird, 1992; Irwin, 1985; as
000111 PSY4002/PCF5013

cited in Gow, Lang & Chant, 2004). Nevertheless, this is not surprising, the research in this
area is mixed and many studies have also failed to find associations between personality and
paranormal belief (e.g. Francis, Williams & Robbins, 2010).

There may have been issues in the study that contributed to this finding: such as
people were completing questionnaire in an uncontrolled setting in which subjects had the
opportunity to sit and chat about the topics. Therefore the social desirability effect may have
lead participants who were high in paranormal beliefs to complete the questionnaire
inaccurately and under-report their beliefs. A way in which this issue may be detected and
avoided is to use the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale. The Marlowe-Crowne scale
involves giving true or false answers to 33 questions about socially desirable behaviour
(O’Grady, 1988). This would enable identification of people who were responding in a
socially desirable way and their results could be analysed separately (Jackson, 1971; as cited
by O’Grady, 1988).

Furthermore this study used students as subjects, this would not normally be an issue
but there is research to suggest that student’s beliefs of the paranormal may differ to the
general public. Diaz-Vilela and Álvarez-González (2004) took 355 students from 7 different
subject areas (psychology, sociology, physics, biology, human resources, tourism &
education) and tested them for paranormal belief using Tobacyk’s revised paranormal belief
scale (RPBS) (Tobacyk, 1988, as cited in Diaz-Vilela & Álvarez-González, 2004). It was
found that psychology, tourism and education students had stronger beliefs in the paranormal
than students studying other subjects. Diaz-Vilela and Álvarez-González (2004) suggested
that students beliefs prior to choosing area of study may have affected the choice of subject.
This has implications for the present study since, if paranormal belief was unusually high in
the sample, as suggested by Diaz-Vilela and Álvarez-González, then there wasn’t a sufficient
spread of responses in the sample to distinguish between participants who were high and low
paranormal belief.

Additionally students IQ’s may have been more than the general population and
according to Wildman (1974; as cited by Diaz-Vilela & Álvarez-González, 2004) there are
differences in IQ of those who have paranormal beliefs and who do not. It was found that
students with the highest IQ scores (above average) held fewer paranormal beliefs in
comparison to those with average IQ scores. On the other hand Vitulli and Luper (1998; as
cited by Diaz-Vilela & Álvarez-González, 2004) found that following a general course in
psychology, paranormal beliefs were reduced. Thus, because this research shows that the
000111 PSY4002/PCF5013

sample used in this study may have different beliefs to the general population, future research
should look at a sample of subjects who are not students.

To conclude, there is no evidence from this study that extraverts are significantly
more likely to believe in the paranormal than introverts.

Word count 1446

[Include APA formatted reference list on new page]