Changing unsubstantiated belief: Testing the ignorance hypothesis.
- 31 December 1984
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement
- Vol. 17 (3) , 263-270
- https://doi.org/10.1037/h0080144
Abstract
Students'' belief in paranormal phenomena was measured before and after they completed a 1-semester university course that emphasized basic methodological issues concerning "good:" vs. "bad" evidence and provided alternative explanations for the phenomena. Reliable reductions in belief were found, and these reductions endured to some extent over a 1-yr period. Classes of students were surveyed in 1981, 1982 and 1983 with 1-yr follow-up surveys after the 1981 and 1982 samples. A control group of students in other university courses was surveyed in 1982. The changes brought about by the course were interpreted as resulting from decreases in the student''s ignorance of basic considerations concerning the nature of reliable evidence.This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment.Psychological Review, 1983
- Critical Thinking and Belief in the ParanormalPsychological Reports, 1980