Belief in the paranormal and its association with irrational thinking controlled for context effects

A total of 814 students from two universities were given the Paranormal Belief Scale (PBS) and the Irrational Beliefs Inventory (IBI) under three different testing conditions in order to observe the possible effects of context (see Council, 1993) on the association between these two measures. In one condition students received the questionnaires together as components of the same study. In another condition students were given one of the questionnaires first, followed by the second questionnaire approximately 2 weeks apart. The questionnaires were administered 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 different research projects, but each questionnaire was administered by a different investigator. Although correlation coefficients between the two measures became weaker as a function of context controls, regression analyses revealed no statistically significant effects of context. When data from all three context conditions were combined, PBS' subscales of traditional religious belief, superstition, and precognition correlated significantly with a global measure of irrational thinking.