PY-01 Paranormal Beliefs: Picture vs Video

Start Date

31-3-2023 10:30 AM

End Date

31-3-2023 12:30 PM

Document Type

Poster

Abstract

In our study of factors and influences on paranormal beliefs. Dr. Bailey and I took scenarios relating to paranormal attitudes and beliefs. Which might be more beneficial for persuading someone to answer differently than their initial beliefs.

Our goal was to see if showing a video before participants answered our questions or showing an article like photograph would influence these individuals answers. Our hypothesis was that people who saw the video would answer with a higher number on the phenomena questions scale compared to the photograph explanation. This experiment saw asked all these questions to undergrads.

First, 25 questions asked about the basics which asked about skepticism, spirituality, certain phenomena not asked about, and what is most likely to be a hoax. The video and photographs all related to bigfoot in some way. The video was from a news report of research who claimed to have captured footage of the Yowie which is Australia’s version of Bigfoot. The pictures were of the Paterson Film which was gave offered explanations debunking the use of a costume in the famous Bigfoot footage.

While this study also measured empathy towards people who believe in certain phenomena between the video and photo groups. One group would watch the video. The second group would receive the photographs in an attempt to figure out if videos were more convincing to influence one’s beliefs or if the photographs with the explanations were going to be more compelling to get a change in beliefs.

After this we asked about the Paterson film photo then ask several of own questions about Bigfoot, UFOs, and Ghost in both groups. While asking about Bigfoot, Ghost, and UFO’s we came up with our own interesting scale asking questions such as have you heard of it, do you think it is a misidentification, how interested are you in this and do you think this thing exists. We called this our paranormal phenomena scale. These were statements given on a 1-5 scale 1 being the least and five being the most.

The study showed some differences between these groups in the misidentification questions it was consistent in saying because for our Video group the average for the misidentification scale was lower on all three categories in total the average for the 3.01 compared the average of the photograph group which was 3.18. Other factors from the scale as well items that you found of this scale support the idea that when showing a video to convey a point may influence people’s ideas more than an article or photograph.

We found that older students 20-22 were more open to paranormal. We also found that older students have seen that famous photo. Males in this study were more likely to say they have experienced things not explained by science. Females had a higher interest in parapsychology. Males responded more positively to a statement that aliens have visited earth. Another thing we looked at is where are they from 46 participants were from South Carolina, 50 participants were from outside, 4 international participants, 3 didn’t answer. The video didn’t have as significant an impact as we thought.

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Mar 31st, 10:30 AM Mar 31st, 12:30 PM

PY-01 Paranormal Beliefs: Picture vs Video

In our study of factors and influences on paranormal beliefs. Dr. Bailey and I took scenarios relating to paranormal attitudes and beliefs. Which might be more beneficial for persuading someone to answer differently than their initial beliefs.

Our goal was to see if showing a video before participants answered our questions or showing an article like photograph would influence these individuals answers. Our hypothesis was that people who saw the video would answer with a higher number on the phenomena questions scale compared to the photograph explanation. This experiment saw asked all these questions to undergrads.

First, 25 questions asked about the basics which asked about skepticism, spirituality, certain phenomena not asked about, and what is most likely to be a hoax. The video and photographs all related to bigfoot in some way. The video was from a news report of research who claimed to have captured footage of the Yowie which is Australia’s version of Bigfoot. The pictures were of the Paterson Film which was gave offered explanations debunking the use of a costume in the famous Bigfoot footage.

While this study also measured empathy towards people who believe in certain phenomena between the video and photo groups. One group would watch the video. The second group would receive the photographs in an attempt to figure out if videos were more convincing to influence one’s beliefs or if the photographs with the explanations were going to be more compelling to get a change in beliefs.

After this we asked about the Paterson film photo then ask several of own questions about Bigfoot, UFOs, and Ghost in both groups. While asking about Bigfoot, Ghost, and UFO’s we came up with our own interesting scale asking questions such as have you heard of it, do you think it is a misidentification, how interested are you in this and do you think this thing exists. We called this our paranormal phenomena scale. These were statements given on a 1-5 scale 1 being the least and five being the most.

The study showed some differences between these groups in the misidentification questions it was consistent in saying because for our Video group the average for the misidentification scale was lower on all three categories in total the average for the 3.01 compared the average of the photograph group which was 3.18. Other factors from the scale as well items that you found of this scale support the idea that when showing a video to convey a point may influence people’s ideas more than an article or photograph.

We found that older students 20-22 were more open to paranormal. We also found that older students have seen that famous photo. Males in this study were more likely to say they have experienced things not explained by science. Females had a higher interest in parapsychology. Males responded more positively to a statement that aliens have visited earth. Another thing we looked at is where are they from 46 participants were from South Carolina, 50 participants were from outside, 4 international participants, 3 didn’t answer. The video didn’t have as significant an impact as we thought.