Paranormal beliefs, religious beliefs and personality correlates

3.5 RELIOSITY AND PERSONALITY FACTORS

Using the enter method, no significant model emerged for the predictor variables (F 5, 59 = 1.503, p > 0.05). The Adjusted R square = 0.038. Significance variables are shown below:

Predictor Variable: Beta P

Agreeableness -0.32 p = 0.38

(Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness and Conscientiousness were not found to significantly predict religious belief).
The significant correlation between the personality factor Agreeableness and religiosity provides partial support for previous studies that stated low Psychoticism (Agreeableness and Conscientiousness in the FFM) to be associated with religiosity (see the meta-analysis by Saroglou, 2002). This result suggests that the Agreeableness factor may be the most important factor in predicting religiosity.
Figure 6. Chart showing the relationship between (global) religiosity scores and personality factors


Figure 7. Graph showing relationship between (global) religiosity scores and the personality factor Agreeableness.

3.6 OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE AND THE RELIGIOSITY SUBSCALES

Using the enter method, no significant model emerged for the predictor variables (F 4, 60 = 2.810, p > 0.05). The Adjusted R square = 0.102. Significance variables are shown below:

Predictor Variable: Beta P

Orthodoxy -2.55 p = 0.05

Relativism 1.58 p = 0.05

(Second Naiveté and External Critique were not found to significantly predict Openness to Experience).

That Openness to Experience is significantly related to both Orthodoxy and Relativism provides further supporting evidence for theories stating that it ought to be crucial in understanding the relation between personality and religiosity (McCrae, 1996, 1999; McCrae, Zimmerman, Costa and Bond, 1996; Saroglou, 2002; Duriez, Luyten, Snauwaert and Hutsebaut, 2002). However, this result does not support previous findings by Duriez, Soenens and Beyers (2003) that Openness to Experience is significantly related to the Literal vs. Symbolic dimension.
Figure 8. Chart showing relationship between the scores of the religiosity subscales Orthodoxy and Relativism against scores of the personality factor Openness to Experience.

3.7 SUMMARY

In summary then, this study showed that religious beliefs and paranormal beliefs are indeed associated, confirming initial exploratory studies that suggested some kind of relationship between the two (Goode, 2000; Haraldsson, 1981). The results here did not confirm the hypothesis based on previous studies, stating that Neuroticism (Thalbourne, Dunbar and Delin, 1995) or Extraversion (Thalbourne, 1981; Eysenck 1967; Thalbourne and Haraldsson, 1980) are correlated with paranormal beliefs. Instead, Conscientiousness was found to be the only personality factor that significantly predicted paranormal beliefs and it was negatively correlated to these beliefs. No significant gender differences were found on either global paranormal belief or on any of the seven subscales, in contrast to previous studies (Clarke, 1991; Rice, 2003; Tobayck and Milford, 1983; Wolfradt, 1997). With regard to religiosity, the personality factor Agreeableness was significantly correlated with religiosity, providing partial support for previous studies indicating low Psychoticism (Agreeableness and Conscientiousness in the FFM) to be associated with religiosity (Francis, 1992a, 1992b, 1993; Francis and Katz, 1992; Francis and Pearson, 1993; Lewis and Joseph, 1994; Lewis and Maltby, 1995, 1996; Maltby, 1999a, 1999b; Saroglou, 2002).

4. DISCUSSION

4.1 PARANORMAL BELIEFS AND RELIGIOSITY

The main aim of this study was to determine the potential relationship between paranormal and religious beliefs. A significantly positive correlation was revealed and a simple model emerged⁶. This result provides supporting evidence for a relationship between the two constructs that was initially suggested in Goode’s (2000) exploratory study and Haraldsson’s (1981) Icelandic samples of belief in psychic phenomena and self-reported religiosity (consisting of items related to praying and the reading of religious material). The findings in this study are in contrast to those by Hillstrom and Strachan (2000), who reported negative correlations between religiosity and beliefs in telepathy, precognition, PK, psychic healing, UFOs, reincarnation, and communication with spirits. The results are also opposed to the view expressed by Sparks (2001), stating that there are sound conceptual reasons, by which the non-close relationship between these two domains of belief can be explained. The reasons he suggested were the lack of treating or endorsing most paranormal phenomena in any detail in any of the religious traditions -therefore religious believers may reject the possible occurrence of this kind of phenomena - secondly, the explicit teachings of many religions, which rely on its followers to demonstrate faiths that are untestable using the scientific method (for example, the central belief of Christians that Jesus Christ dies for people’s sins). This is different to paranormal phenomena that have been test in laboratory conditions (e.g. Zener card tests for ESP). This view may be somewhat simplistic though, as even the most deeply religious of people would be exposed to other environmental and social influences that could affect their interpretation of events in the world without unduly impinging upon their religious activity and beliefs.

Precognition was found to be the best (and most significant) predictor of religious beliefs. The other paranormal subscales were not able to significantly predict religiosity. This is an interesting result and one that has been seen before, such as in Tobayck and Milford’s (1983) study, which showed that items pertaining to Traditional Religious Belief (belief in survival, devil, God, heaven and hell) constituted a factor supposedly independent of the other belief dimensions on the RPBS and that they correlated positively with belief in precognition (r = 0.23). The fact that precognition is significantly related to religiosity might be considered ‘common sense’ when considering the number of examples involving prophetic visions and dreams that are recorded in the Bible (Sparks, 2001).
Of similar interest was the finding of the Orthodoxy and Second Naiveté religious subscales as the most significant predictors of paranormal belief. The common factor between these two subscales is the Inclusion of Transcendence aspect in respect to Wulff’s (1991, 1997) two-dimensional model of religiosity. This relates to the belief in an afterlife, spiritual or some other form of existence beyond the physical realm. Past research indicates that, with the exception of a few countries such as the former East Germany and Slovenia, the majority of the population believes in a life after death and that the amount of people expressing this belief is actually increasing (Greeley, 1995). The common thread that might link paranormal and religious beliefs is the explanation of the belief in transcendence as some kind of anxiety-reduction process regarding the anxiety about death, since Osarchuk and Tatz (1973, p. 256) had concluded that one function of belief in an afterlife ‘might be to help the individual to deal with anxiety over death’. Perhaps most pertinent of all is a study by Thalbourne (1989), which collated evidence showing that those who believe in an afterlife also tend to believe in, and report the experience of, paranormal phenomena such as ESP and psychokinesis. Siegel (1980, p. 917) has go so far as to remark that ‘our belief in survival after death is probably related to some deep biological craving of the organism’. This anxiety regarding death may reflect a more general disposition towards anxiety that is found in paranormal believers in the previous studies (Okebukola, 1986; Wagner and Ratzeburg, 1987). Anxiety ratings or scores for religious believers have not received much interest, so whether this is an important contributing factor towards these two beliefs remains to be examined by future research in this area.