BELIEF IN THE PARANORMAL AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH IRRATIONAL THINKINGCONTROLLED FOR CONTEXT EFFECTS

A total of 814 students from two universities were given the Paranorma l Belief Scale (PBS) and the Irrational Beliefs Inventory (IBI) under three different testing conditions in order to observe the possible ef fects of context (see Council, 1993) on the association between these two measures. In one condition students received the questionnaires to gether as components of the same study. In another condition students were given one of the questionnaires first, followed by the second que stionnaire approximately 2 weeks apart. The questionnaires were admini stered by the same investigator as if they were part of two different research projects. Students in the third condition also received each of the questionnaires 2 weeks apart as if they were part of two differ ent research projects, but each questionnaire was administered by a di fferent investigator. Although correlation coefficients between the tw o measures became weaker as a function of context controls, regression analyses revealed no statistically significant effects of context. Wh en data from all three context conditions were combined, PBS' subscale s of traditional religious belief, superstition, and precognition corr elated significantly with a global measure of irrational thinking. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.