 Non-Reflective Thinkers Are Predisposed to Attribute Supernatural Causation to Uncanny ExperiencesR. Bouvet and
Jean-François Bonnefon
Post-Print from HAL Abstract: For unknown reasons, individuals who are confident in their intuitions are more likely to hold supernatural beliefs. How does an intuitive cognitive style lead one to believe in faith healing, astrology, or extrasensory perception (ESP)? We hypothesize that cognitive style is critically important after one experiences an uncanny event that seems to invite a supernatural explanation. In three studies, we show that irrespective of their prior beliefs in the supernatural, non-reflective thinkers are more likely than reflective thinkers to accept supernatural causation after an uncanny encounter with astrology and ESP. This is the first time that controlled experiments demonstrate the negative dynamics of reflection and supernatural causality attribution. We consider the possible generalization of our findings to religious beliefs and their implications for the social vulnerability of non-reflective individuals. Keywords: cognitive; style; intuition; dual-process; theories; paranormal; beliefs (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2015, 41 (7), pp.955 - 961. ⟨10.1177/0146167215585728⟩ There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01400230 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Post-Print from HAL |
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