always highly inconsistent. For example, even though there
has been some evidence on paranormal believers being more
extraverted (Thalbourne & Haraldsson, 1980), all subsequent
research using different measures of paranormal beliefs and
personality found no such relation (e.g. Rattet & Bursik, 2001;
Thalbourne et al., 1995). On the other hand, the dimension that
has found the most support in being related to paranormal be-
liefs is Neuroticism. Windholz and Diamant (1974) were the first
to characterize believers in paranormal as impulsive, reflec-
tive, neurotic and even schizoid, as opposed to controlled,
practical, and well-adjusted non-believers. That finding was
later replicated using various measures of both Neuroticism
and paranormal belief (e.g. Gallagher et al., 1994; Thalbourne
et al., 1995). In more recent studies, Neuroticism was found to
be the best predictor of paranormal beliefs within Eysenck's
three factor model (Williams et al., 2007), a significant predic-
tor of both positive and negative superstitions (Wiseman &
Watt, 2004), astrology (Fichten & Sunerton, 1983), and a use-
ful predictor of magical-religious beliefs in a large Finnish sample
(N=3261) (Lindeman & Aarnio, 2006). Despite the majority of
confirming studies, some nevertheless found no relationship
between Neuroticism and paranormal beliefs (e.g. MacDonald,
2000; Tobacyk, 1982). It is also worth noting that Neuroticism
is one of the dimensions of the Five Factor model most con-
sistently related to religiosity (Saroglou, 2002; Saroglou & Jas-
pard, 2000). Despite the statistically significant relation how-
ever, the direction has been both positive and negative, mak-
ing it difficult to interpret. Studies exploring Conscientious-
ness and Agreeableness as correlates of paranormal belief have
been somewhat more consistent, albeit very scarce. Surprising-
ly, although those two dimensions play a major role in explai-
ning the relationship between religiousness and personality
(see Saroglou, 2002), and efficiently differentiate traditional re-
ligious beliefs from more spiritual approaches to religion (Sau-
cier, 2000; Saucier & Skrzypiska, 2006), their relation to other
paranormal beliefs has not been well documented. In those
rare studies only Conscientiousness was shown to have a ne-
gative relation to paranormal belief (i.e. Egan et al., 1999). Fi-
nally, Openness to experience, characterized by receptiveness
to new ideas, approaches, and experiences (McCrae & Costa,
1997), was also fairly consistently shown to correlate with ge-
neral paranormal belief (Egan et al., 1999; MacDonald, 2000;
Smith et al., 2009). However, as with all other dimensions, the
diverse measures of both personality and paranormal beliefs
used, along with a small number of studies conducted, make
it impossible to conclusively determine the relevance of this
personality dimension in explaining and predicting paranor-
mal beliefs.
184
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GOD. 21 (2012),
BR. 1 (115),
STR. 181-201
MIKLOUŠIĆ, I., MLAČIĆ,
B., MILAS, G.:
PARANORMAL BELIEFS...
Due to the above stated issues, the two problems addres-
sed in our study were; the structure of the RPBS; and the rela-
tion between paranormal belief and personality. The first pro-
blem is an important one, since there is still little agreement
between the researchers on the number of dimensions defin-
ing paranormal beliefs. Overestimating as well as underesti-
mating the number of distinct constructs within the RPBS could
pose a threat in an attempt to find real relationships with per-
sonality dimensions and explain them in a theoretically sound
way. With regard to the second problem, we can put forth se-
veral hypotheses. Firstly, due to the lack of significant find-
ings in recent studies, conducted with somewhat comparable
measures (e.g. Williams et al., 2007), we do not expect to find
a significant relationship between paranormal beliefs and
extraversion. Furthermore, as Agreeableness and Conscientious-
ness dimensions have seldom been studied outside of tradi-
tional religious beliefs, our inferences can be made mostly on
the basis of prior religiosity research. In that regard, we could
expect Conscientiousness to be positively correlated to tradi-
tional religious beliefs (Saroglou, 2002). This is presumed due
to conscientious people being characterized by impulse con-
trol, need for orderliness, and low flexibility (Costa & McCrae,
1992). Also, since all other paranormal beliefs are usually la-
beled as unconventional or even bizarre, it is sound to presume
that negative correlation would be found between those scales
and Conscientiousness (Egan et al., 1999). Regarding Agree-
ableness, which emphasizes both compliance and prosocial ten-
dencies, we could presume that if adherence to traditional au-
thority-based religion were strongly normative in a culture,
endorsement of attitudes representing doctrines of this reli-
gion should become highly desirable for individuals and thus
more related to this dimension (Saucier & Skrzypiska, 2006).
Since the population of Croatia is predominantly Catholic, the
measurement of tradition-oriented religiousness should be-
come strongly affected by desirability responding, and thus re-
lated to an extent to Agreeableness. Furthermore, the proso-
cial tendencies displayed by the Agreeableness dimension,
should manifest themselves through a benevolent worldview
promoted by various spiritual claims. These presumptions
are supported by the prior positive relationship with both tra-
ditional and spiritual dimensions of religiosity (Saroglou, 2002;
Saucier, 2000; Saucier & Skrzypiska, 2006), and could imply a
positive relation of Agreeableness with Traditional religious
belief and Spiritualism subscales of RPBS. Since it has been im-
plied how a need for security could be the underlying cause
of more neurotic people adopting paranormal beliefs (Thal-
bourne et al., 1995), we also expect to find a significant corre-
185
DRU[. ISTRA@. ZAGREB
GOD. 21 (2012),
BR. 1 (115),
STR. 181-201
MIKLOUŠIĆ, I., MLAČIĆ,
B., MILAS, G.:
PARANORMAL BELIEFS...