Ghosts, God, and Vaccine Hesitancy:

1. Ghosts, God, and Vaccine Hesitancy: The Relationship between Experience and Belief William Langston, Department of Psychology

2. Ghosts, God, and Vaccine Hesitancy: The Relationship between Experience and Belief William Langston, Department of Psychology

3. Outline • The Relationship between Experience and Belief • Ghosts: Foundation. • God: Discrimination. • Vaccine Hesitancy: Application.

4. Research Team • Tyler Hubbard • Jeannie Carlson • Nikki Gibson • Emily Shields • David Pitchford • Jesse Lemaster • Iska Frosh • Doniqua Joyner • John Murphy • Jesse Gammons • Michael Baker • Samantha Schultz • Timothy Bodey • Triskal DeHaven • Jesse Bradford • Kevin Anderson • Micah D’Archangel • Christof Fehrman • Catherine York • Jake Davis • Emory Bibb

5. Research Team

6. What’s the deal with ghosts?

7. Why ghosts? • Ghosts are an ideal laboratory for exploring belief. • Consequential misbeliefs: • Incels.

8. Consequential misbeliefs… https://www.timsquirrell.com/blog/2018/5/30/a-definitive-guide-to-incels-part-one-incelocalypse

9. Consequential misbeliefs… • “You girls have never been attracted to me. I don’t know why you girls aren't attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it. It’s an injustice, a crime, because ... I don't know what you don’t see in me. I'm the perfect guy and yet you throw yourselves at these obnoxious men instead of me, the supreme gentleman.” • Elliot Rodger manifesto (6 dead, 14 injured) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Isla_Vista_killings#Manifesto_and_online_posts)

10. The program

11. The program • One set of variables influences the formation of belief: Something happens Some variables Experience Some variables Belief Freeman, Garety, Kuipers, Fowler, & Bebbington, 2002

12. The program • Different variables influence the maintenance and updating of belief: Freeman, Garety, Kuipers, Fowler, & Bebbington, 2002

14. The program • Assumptions: • Belief arises from experience and reflects a rational response to experience. • Understanding the experiential foundations of belief will be complicated. • Understanding the experiential foundations of belief will be necessary to understand how to change consequential misbeliefs. • But, the variables that affect belief change are likely different from the variables affecting belief formation.

15. Ghosts

16. Question • What is the relationship between experience and belief?

17. Method • Measure: • Experience. • Belief. • Personality. • Behavior. • Demographics. • Winnow and sift with reckless abandon.

18. Method • Measure: • Experience. • Belief. • Personality. • Behavior. • Demographics. • Winnow and sift with reckless abandon.

19. Method • Sample: • Recruited by students in research methods; two waves. • N = 197 (308 started, completed <90% N = 94, said their data should be excluded N = 17).

20. Method

21. Method • Sample: • Recruited by students in research methods; two waves. • N = 197 (308 started, completed <90% N = 94, said their data should be excluded N = 17). • Average age = 32.9 (SD = 14.33; 18-79; Nreporting = 196); 60 male, 132 female. • Average religious intensity = 5.32 (SD = 3.46; 1-11; Nreporting = 192); 57 typically attend weekly religious service, 135 do not. • 29 high school or GED, 61 some college/no degree; 29 associates degree, 48 bachelor’s degree; 19 at least some graduate education.

22. Method • Experience: • Personal ghost encounter(number of encounters, age at first encounter, fear, quality, intensity). • Personal paranormal experience (number of experiences, number of types). • Close other’s ghost (source, age when told, PANAS, fear, quality, intensity, investment, source credibility X3). • Close other’s paranormal (source, number of types). • Story ghost (fear, quality, intensity, investment). • Story paranormal (source, number of types). • TV ghost shows; TV ghost/paranormal shows; TV paranormal shows (number of shows, number of viewings, credibility).

23. Method • Belief: • Ghost scale (Cronbach alpha = .86): • I believe in the existence of ghosts (Wiseman, Watt, Greening, Stevens, & O’Keeffe, 2002). • The soul continues to exist though the body may die (Traditional Religious Belief subscale, PBS, Tobacyk & Milford, 1983). • It is possible to communicate with the dead (Spiritualism subscale, , PBS, Tobacyk & Milford, 1983). • It is possible for places to be haunted (Laythe & Owen, 2012).

24. Method • Personality: • Sensation seeking. • Private body consciousness. • Schizotypy (SPQ-B; cognitive-perceptual, interpersonal, disorganized). • Transliminality. • Empathy (BES; contagion, empathy, disconnection). • Big 5 (I, C, E, A, N). • Paranoia. • Emotion regulation (ERQ; reappraisal, suppression). • Critical thinking (systematicity & analyticity, inquisitiveness & conversance, maturity & skepticism). • Self consciousness (private, public, social anxiety). • Absorption. • Locus of control. • Cognitive biases for psychosis (intentionalizing, catastrophizing, dichotomous thinking, jumping to conclusions, emotional reasoning; threatening event, anomalous perceptual).

25. What have they experienced?

26. Results Belief

27. Results Belief

28. Four Two analyses • Group comparisons. • Is experience related to belief in ghosts? • How does an event turn into an experience? • What aspects of experience predict belief?

29. First analysis • Group comparisons.

30. Crosstab comparison Lawrence & Peters (2004, p. 730; belief is out-of-body experiences, mediums, and ESP)

31. Results • Personal ghost encounter: Belief

32. Results • Personal and other’s experiences (ghost and paranormal): Belief

33. Compare the four groups: • Experience.

34. Results • Low Experience/Low Belief (N = 30) Belief

35. Results • Low Experience/High Belief (N = 3) Belief

36. Results • High Experience/Low Belief (N = 67) Belief

37. Results • High Experience/High Belief (N = 90) Belief

38. Results • Low Experience/Low Belief (N = 30) Belief

39. Results • Low Experience/High Belief (N = 3) Belief

40. Results • High Experience/Low Belief (N = 67) Belief

41. Results • High Experience/High Belief (N = 90) Belief

42. Compare the four groups: • Personality.

43. Results • Personality differences between the groups: Belief *p < .001

44. Results • Personality differences between the groups: Belief *p < .001

45. Results • Personality differences between the groups: Belief *p < .001

46. Second analysis • Is experience related to belief in ghosts?

47. Results Belief *p < .001

48. Results Belief *p < .001

49. Results • Specificity of experience: Predict ghost belief: Belief Variables not entered: N/A

50. Ghost Summary • There is a relationship between experience and belief. • Personal experiences carry more weight. • Ghost experiences carry more weight (some specificity). • The overall experience belief groups differ.