Beliefs in the paranormal: Age and sex differences among elderly persons and undergraduate students

Beliefs in the paranormal were rated stronger in younger as compared to eld erly adults by Emmons and Sobal in 1981, and sex correlates of paranormal b eliefs appeared to be stronger in women than in men by Irwin in 1994. This research studied possible linkages between age and sex with a comparative a nalysis between results of Vitulli and Luper's 1998 survey among undergradu ate students and data from elderly men (M = 72 yr., SD = 9.2, n = 21) and w omen (M = 69.3 pr., SD = 7.7, n = 55). Crawford and Christensen's 1995 12-i tem Extrasensory Perception Survey was administered to elderly persons livi ng in apartment complexes and private homes, participating in activities in a recreation center, or attending a continuing-education seminar. A 2 x 2 multivariate analysis of variance from responses on the 12-item survey show ed that undergraduate men and elderly women had the highest ratings on para normal beliefs. The self-selecting characteristics of a segment of the elde rly sample led to a post hoc univariate analysis of variance by partitionin g that sample into those mho were attending a continuing-education seminar Versus all other elderly persons. Summated ratings (total scores) for this survey showed main effects for these subsamples and for sex. Sex and age di fferences were discussed in the context of the hypothesis of social margina lity.