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Investigating the relationship between exposure to television programs that depict paranormal phenomena and belief in the paranormal (Sparks and Miller 2001) 

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Investigating the relationship between exposure to television programs that depict paranormal phenomena and belief in the paranormal (Sparks and Miller 2001) 

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-the largest relationship found when conducting the research was found in different levels of education. Due to the development of critical thinking skills, people with higher levels of education are more likely to reject the existence of the paranormal. In other words, people with less opportunities are more likely to believe in the paranormal (pg 99)
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Cultivation Theory: a theory that suggests that the longer people spend “living” in the television world, the more likely they are to believe reality aligns with what is portrayed on television.

Availability Heuristic: an explanation for the cultivation theory- states that when people are asked to make assumptions about reality they are likely to draw from what is readily available in their memory that might be relevant to their judgement

Resonance -  the notion that the effects of television messages should be stronger when they correspond with viewers’ real-life experiences

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The writer’s strike in 1980 caused television programs to rely more heavily on reality tv shows depicting things like UFOs and psychics (Sparks and Miller 2001).

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-Many people turn to low cognitive ability to explain why some people believe in the paranormal, however many studies show that the gap between skeptics as small enough to be irrelevant (pg 2).

-Lindemen suggests that while there is a difference between those less educated and those with higher education in belief in paranormal, the knowledge of science does not affect paranormal belief. These beliefs likely developed prior to beginning a higher education, and are unlikely to be swayed when presented with the realities of the world. This may suggest that believers and skeptics are similar in that they both are closed-minded (pg 3).

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Paranormal depictions in the media: how do they affect what people believe? (Sparks 1998)

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Paranormal depictions in the media: how do they affect what people believe? (Sparks 1998)

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-Sparks reports that citing a scientific source in a program, whether it affirms or denies the existence of the paranormal, offers a certain credibility to the show itself, and is more likely to be believed by the viewer. This could show that people might not put much value on what an expert says, and simply pay attention to the fact that they are there to support their ideas.

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Development of Beliefs in Paranormal and Supernatural Phenomena (Whittle 2004)

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Development of Beliefs in Paranormal and Supernatural Phenomena (Whittle 2004)

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-Whittle claims that scientists present theories that are impossible to grasp, such as dark matter, black holes, or parallel universes, and that by comparison, the paranormal is much easier to wrap one's mind around.

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Investigating the relationship between exposure to television programs that depict paranormal phenomena and belief in the paranormal (Sparks and Miller 2001) 

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Investigating the relationship between exposure to television programs that depict paranormal phenomena and belief in the paranormal (Sparks and Miller 2001) 

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-Sparks and Miller present the cultivation theory, which they cite as a reason that people who regularly watch paranormal television shows are more likely to believe in them. The availability heuristic explains the cultivation theory (pg 102).

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Repeated Exposure to Suggestion and the Creation of False Memories (Zaragoza and Mitchell 1996)

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Repeated Exposure to Suggestion and the Creation of False Memories (Zaragoza and Mitchell 1996)

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-When met with a repeated suggestion that an event has happened. In many ‘ghost hunting’ shows, they show a blurred image of their paranormal sighting, with a large circle or arrow pointing to it. This clip plays several times so that the audience may see what was caught by the camera, however, this repeated video may induce false memories among the viewer. (pg 294).

-When a question or statement is repeated once, the memory it leaves is faint compared to the one left by a suggestion repeated more than once. This could be the reason why people are more likely to believe something if they have been told it many times, ie. ‘wear a jacket or you’ll catch a cold’ when this is a myth about colds. It is not a far stretch to believe, then, that people will believe that they witnessed something paranormal if they have had repeated exposure to paranormal media informing them that ghosts, demons, or magic is real (pg 297).

-Zaragoza and Mitchell assert that false memories can become confused with real memories at the repeated exposure to inaccurate statements. These memories become imbued with the mind and perceived as actually having transpired. This may be why some people adamantly claim that they were subject to paranormal experiences if they have numerous sources claiming that the paranormal exists. They may perceive stimuli that caused their belief to have had various paranormal elements, such as the air going cold, seeing something inanimate move, hearing voices, etc. and thus misattribute their experience to be of paranormal nature (pg 298).

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPOSURE TO TELEVISED MESSAGES ABOUT PARANORMAL PHENOMENA AND PARANORMAL BELIEFS (Sparks, Nelson, & Campbell 1997)

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPOSURE TO TELEVISED MESSAGES ABOUT PARANORMAL PHENOMENA AND PARANORMAL BELIEFS (Sparks, Nelson, & Campbell 1997)

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-The study done here notes that in areas of high crime, people who frequently watch television are receiving a "double-dose" of messages that cultivated fear of victimization. Sparks et. al conclude that the cultivation theory may not hold up in every geographical area, but in those geographical areas which have an atmosphere that promotes what is seen on television may be what amplifies belief.

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Belief in Conspiracy Theories (Goertzel 1994)

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Belief in Conspiracy Theories (Goertzel 1994)

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-Goertzel claims that monological beliefs and evidence stem from prior beliefs in a sort of self-fueling circuit. He cites the Tuskegee syphilis conspiracy as a source for African-Americans to believe that the government is responsible for other epidemics. It seems not to stem from ideas made up on the spot, but from past proved injustices. People use an experience from the past to justify events in their lives they find similar, which can contribute to why people who have claimed to have had contact with the paranormal are more likely to attribute other things to the paranormal.

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Social Influence On Paranormal Beliefs (Markovsky and Shane, 2001)

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Social Influence On Paranormal Beliefs (Markovsky and Shane, 2001)

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-Social impact theory “views paranormal beliefs as a natural consequence of social influence processes in interpersonal settings.” In an experiment, they informed people that there is a belief that pyramids hold supernatural preservational properties. Afterwards, the test subjects judged whether fruit stored in a pyramid or a box was fresher. The results pointed to people being more susceptible to believing that the fruit in the pyramid was fresher, though the fruit stored in both containers were essentially the same (pg 23).

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-media today hails scientists as “omniscient elites” who can never be wrong. Their ‘status’ as scientists affords them boundless credibility in the eyes of the public, and as such, their input is a very weighty addition to any subject. A usual and predictable feature in paranormal investigative television shows is the addition of ‘scientific jargon’ and technical devices that seem to be very complicated. This offers a cover of what is commonly referred to as ‘psuedo-science’ by many in the scientific community, yet to the untrained eye this appears to be a very credible method of detecting and communicating with the paranormal (pg 316).

-Because the public has been so exposed to a glamorized portrayal of scientists and science, any sort of reality television show that uses science in a way that sounds real may be held up to be true, even if the findings are inaccurate (pg 316)

-a common practice in paranormal investigative television shows is to ‘debunk’ a strange noise or object falling over as being the source of an outside contaminant. This creates a sense of honesty between the producer and the viewer, as well as reflects the scientific credibility of the methods used in the show, since if they figured out that one noise was not actually caused by paranormal activity, it is assumed that they must do that for every single piece of evidence they find (pg 312)

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-Despite the numerous theories on resonance being a major contributing factor towards belief in the paranormal after watching paranormal television programs, Brewer’s study presents that resonance had little to do with whether someone believed in the credibility of paranormal investigators.

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Paranormal Beliefs, Education, and Thinking Styles (Aarnio & Lindeman 2005)

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Paranormal Beliefs, Education, and Thinking Styles (Aarnio & Lindeman 2005)

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-Aarnio and Lindeman conducted an experiment measuring the belief in paranormal of people and subsequently measured their education levels, finding a negative correlation between level of education and belief in the paranormal (pg 1233).

- It was found that students that study art and humanities have higher levels of paranormal belief than students studying math and science, which they attribute to the lack of necessity to "evaluate arguments critically" (pg 1228)

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPOSURE TO TELEVISED MESSAGES ABOUT PARANORMAL PHENOMENA AND PARANORMAL BELIEFS (Sparks, Nelson, & Campbell 1997)

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPOSURE TO TELEVISED MESSAGES ABOUT PARANORMAL PHENOMENA AND PARANORMAL BELIEFS (Sparks, Nelson, & Campbell 1997)

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-"The regression equation reported in Table 3 shows a significant relationship between exposure to paranormal programs and paranormal beliefs only for the individuals who reported that they had never experienced paranormal events in their real life. A similar regression equation for those who reported direct experience with paranormal events showed an insignificant relationship between program exposure and paranormal beliefs."

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Paranormal depictions in the media: how do they affect what people believe? (Sparks 1998)

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Paranormal depictions in the media: how do they affect what people believe? (Sparks 1998)

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- Sparks notes that when people have an image in their mind of what something is supposed to look like, and they are shown a program that depicts that something with very little to no detail, people are more likely to project their ideas onto what is portrayed. This was observed by showing people an episode about UFOs and removing all images of the UFOs. After watching the program, people reported that they had a higher belief in the paranormal.

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-Aarnio, Kia, and Marjaana Lindeman. “Paranormal Beliefs, Education, and Thinking Styles.” Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 39, no. 7, 2005, pp. 1227–1236., doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.04.009.

-Brewer, Paul R. “The Trappings of Science.” Science Communication, vol. 35, no. 3, July 2012, pp. 311–333., doi:10.1177/1075547012454599.

-Goertzel, Ted. “Belief in Conspiracy Theories.” Political Psychology, vol. 15, no. 4, 1994, p. 731., doi:10.2307/3791630.

-Lamont, Peter. “Paranormal Belief and the Avowal of Prior Scepticism.” Theory & Psychology, vol. 17, no. 5, 2007, pp. 681–696., doi:10.1177/0959354307081624.

-Lindeman, Marjaana. “Paranormal Beliefs.” Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 2017, pp. 1–4., doi:10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_835-1.

-Markovsky, Barry, and Shane R. Thye. “Social Influence On Paranormal Beliefs.” Sociological Perspectives, vol. 44, no. 1, 2001, pp. 21–44., doi:10.1525/sop.2001.44.1.21.

-Sparks, G., & Miller, W. (2001). Investigating the relationship between exposure to television programs that depict paranormal phenomena and beliefs in the paranormal. Communication Monographs, 68(1), 98-113. doi:10.1080/03637750128053

-Sparks, Glenn G. “ Paranormal depictions in the media: how do they affect what people believe?” Paranormal Depictions in the Media, Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, www.ravenndragon.net/montgomery/sparks.html.

-Sparks, Glenn G., et al. “The Relationship between Exposure to Televised Messages about Paranormal Phenomena and Paranormal Beliefs.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 41, no. 3, 1997, pp. 345–359., doi:10.1080/08838159709364412.

-Whittle, Christopher H. “Development of Beliefs in Paranormal and Supernatural Phenomena.”CSI, Skeptical Inquirer, www.csicop.org/SI/show/development_of_beliefs_in_paranormal_and_supernatural_phenomena.

-Zaragoza, Maria S., and Karen J. Mitchell. “Repeated Exposure to Suggestion and the Creation of False Memories.” Psychological Science, vol. 7, no. 5, 1996, pp. 294–300., doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00377.x.