The_Influence_of_a_Belief_in_ESP_on_the_Prediction_of_Coi_To

The Influence of a Belief in ESP on the Prediction of Coi Tosses THE INFLUENCE OF A BELIEF IN ESP ON THE PREDICTION OF COIN TOSSES ABSTRACT This study examined the effects of belief in Extrasensory Perception (ESP) on precognition accuracy in 850 undergraduate students. The 520 ‘believers’ and 330 ‘non-believers’, defined by a single questionnaire item were asked to predict the outcomes of 50 coin tosses. For both groups, the percentage of correct predictions did not differ from that expected by chance (50%). Thus, no effect of ESP belief on precognition was demonstrated. Indeed, the results showed no evidence of precognition. Discussion focused on problems of group definition. Anecdotal reports of “mind reading” and clairvoyance have persisted throughout history. It was not until the late 1920s, however, that an attempt was made to examine the existence of such paranormal abilities in the laboratory using proper objective methods (Rhine, J.B., 1935). Rhine referred to these abilities collectively as Extrasensory Perception (ESP) because they supposedly occurred independently of the known senses. Rhine used naïve participants in his experiments, asking them to guess the symbols contained in a special deck of cards. Three types of ESP were examined in this way: (1) Telepathy, where the participant attempted to read the experimenter’s mind in order to perceive the identity of the card; (2) Clairvoyance, where the participant sought to identify the card which was unknown to the experimenter; and esp, participants, believers, study, chance, non-believers, belief, rhine, performed, research, level, coin, better, toss, thus, performance, perform, perception, nonbelievers, group, experiments, criticism, correct, below, two, subjects, scores, response, question, present, precognition, possible, out, one, mean, made