We tested preregistered hypotheses (a) examining the structure of supernatural beliefs and perceived experiences and (b) predicting supernatural engagement from the Big Five and cognitive styles. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of self-report data in the U.S. undergraduates (Study 1: n = 1,401; Study 2: n = 1,939) showed that beliefs and perceived experiences were characterized by two factors. Positive and Negative Agents factors related strongly to religious belief salience and were defined by God, the devil, angels, demons, and ghosts/spirits, whereas Forces and Spirits factors were unrelated to religious belief salience and were defined by fate/destiny, karma, and ghosts/spirits. Extraversion, conscientiousness, experiential processing, schizotypy, and dissociative tendencies related positively to supernatural engagement. With some nuances, agreeableness, neuroticism, and need for closure were positive predictors, whereas skepticism and analytical-rational processing were negative predictors. Openness and intellectual humility did not relate positively to supernatural engagement, contradicting expectations. Because the literature on individual differences predictors of supernatural engagement is not well integrated, these results may contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of this topic.
AghababaeiN.BłachnioA.ArjiA.ChiniforoushanM.TekkeM.Fazeli MehrabadiA. (2016). Honesty–humility and the HEXACO structure of religiosity and well-being. Current Psychology, 35(3), 421–426. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9310-5
BakerJ. (2008). Who believes in religious evil? An investigation of sociological patterns of belief in satan, hell, and demons. Review of Religious Research, 50, 206–220.
5.
BakerJ. O.MolleA.BaderC. D. (2020). The flesh and the devil: Belief in religious evil and views of sexual morality. Review of Religious Research, 62(1), 133–151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-020-00403-4
6.
BarnesK.GibsonN. J. S. (2013). Supernatural agency: Individual difference predictors and situational correlates. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION, 23(1), 42–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2013.739066
7.
BlaineB.CrockerJ. (1995). Religiousness, race, and psychological well-being: Exploring social psychological mediators. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(10), 1031–1041. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672952110004
8.
BluemkeM.JongJ.GrevensteinD.MikloušićI.HalberstadtJ. (2016). Measuring cross-cultural supernatural beliefs with self- and peer-reports. PLOS ONE, 11(10), e0164291. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164291
9.
Bosco-RuggieroS. A. (2020). The relationship between Americans’ spiritual/religious beliefs and behaviors and mental health: New evidence from the 2016 general social survey. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 22(1), 30–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2018.1515052
10.
ButlerL. D. (2006). Normative dissociation. Psychiatric Clinics, 29(1), 45–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2005.10.004
11.
ChauvinB.MulletE. (2021). Individual differences in paranormal beliefs: The differential role of personality aspects. Current Psychology, 40(3)1218–1227. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0047-9
12.
ClaridgeG.McCreeryC.MasonO.BentallR.BoyleG.SladeP.PopplewellD. (1996). The factor structure of ‘schizotypal ‘traits: A large replication study. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 35(1), 103–115, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8260.1996.tb01166.x
13.
DahlgreenW. (2016). British people more likely to believe in ghosts than a Creator. YouGov. Retrieved October 21, 2020 from https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2016/03/26/o-we-of-little-faith.
14.
DalenbergC.CarlsonE. (2010). New versions of the Dissociative Experiences Scale: The DES-R (revised) and the DES-B (brief). Annual meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, November, Montreal, Quebec.
15.
DeYoungC. G. (2015b). Openness/intellect: A dimension of personality reflecting cognitive exploration. In APA Handbook of personality and social psychology, volume 4: Personality processes and individual differences (pp. 369–399). American Psychological Association.
EpsteinS.PaciniR.Denes-RajV.HeierH. (1996). Individual differences in intuitive–experiential and analytical–rational thinking styles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 390–405, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.2.390
18.
ExlineJ. J.PargamentK. I.GrubbsJ. B.YaliA. M. (2014). The religious and spiritual struggles scale: Development and initial validation. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208–222. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036465
19.
ExlineJ. J.StaunerN.WiltJ. A.FinchamF. D.MayR.PargamentK. I.BaumeisterR. F. (2020). Supernatural attributions: A conceptual framework. Manuscript in preparation.
20.
ExlineJ. J.WiltJ. A.SchuttW. A.PargamentK. I.FinchamF. D.MayR. W. (2021). Supernatural operating rules: How people envision and experience God, the devil, ghosts/spirits, fate/destiny, karma, and luck. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000444.
21.
FlannellyK. J. (2017). Beliefs about one's Relationship with God and mental health. In FlannellyK. J. (Ed.), Religious beliefs, evolutionary psychiatry, and mental health in america: Evolutionary threat assessment systems theory (pp. 195–209). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52488-7_20
22.
FloraD. B.CurranP. J. (2004). An empirical evaluation of alternative methods of estimation for confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. Psychological Methods, 9(4), 466–491, https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.9.4.466
23.
FunderD. C.OzerD. J. (2019). Evaluating effect size in psychological research: Sense and nonsense. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2(2), 156–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245919847202
GignacG. E.SzodoraiE. T. (2016). Effect size guidelines for individual differences researchers. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 74–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.069
26.
GoplenJ.PlantE. A. (2015). A religious worldview: Protecting one's Meaning system through religious prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(11), 1474–1487. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215599761
27.
GrazianoW. G.TobinR. M. (2009). Agreeableness.
28.
HeinrichM.ZagorscakP.EidM.KnaevelsrudC. (2020). Giving G a meaning: An application of the bifactor-(S-1) approach to realize a more symptom-oriented modeling of the beck depression inventory–II. Assessment, 27(7), 1429–1447, https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191118803738
HofmannR. J. (1978). Complexity and simplicity as objective indices descriptive of factor solutions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 13(2), 247–250, https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr1302_9
31.
HornJ. L. (1965). An empirical comparison of methods for estimating factor scores. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 25(2), 313–322, https://doi.org/10.1177/001316446502500202
32.
HurttR. K. (2010). Development of a scale to measure professional skepticism. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 29(1), 149–171, https://doi.org/10.2308/aud.2010.29.1.149
33.
IrwinH. J.WattC. A. (2007). An introduction to parapsychology. McFarland.
JohnstonJ. C.De GrootH. P.SpanosN. P. (1994). The structure of paranormal belief: A factor-analytic investigation. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 14(2), 165–174, https://doi.org/10.2190/JQ00-AY8V-CJL0-VRDN
36.
JonesW. H.RussellD. W.NickelT. W. (1977). Belief in the paranormal scale: An objective instrument to measure belief in magical phenomena and causes. American Psycholog. Ass., Journal Suppl. Abstract Service.
37.
JongJ.BluemkeM.HalberstadtJ. (2013). Fear of death and supernatural beliefs: Developing a new supernatural belief scale to test the relationship. European Journal of Personality, 27(5), 495–506. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1898
38.
KahnemanD. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan.
39.
KayA. C.GaucherD.McGregorI.NashK. (2009). Religious belief as compensatory control. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309353750
40.
LakensD. (2018). Equivalence tests: A practical primer for t tests, correlations, and meta-analyses. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(4), 355–362, https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617697177
41.
LangstonW.HubbardT.FehrmanC.D'ArchangelM.AndersonK. (2020). The role of personality in having a ghost experience and the role of personality and experience in the development of ghost belief. Personality and Individual Differences, 163, 110077. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110077
42.
LearyM. R.DiebelsK. J.DavissonE. K.Jongman-SerenoK. P.IsherwoodJ. C.RaimiK. T.DefflerS. A.HoyleR. H. (2017). Cognitive and interpersonal features of intellectual humility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(6), 793–813, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217697695
43.
LindemanM.Svedholm-HäkkinenA. M.LipsanenJ. (2015). Ontological confusions but not mentalizing abilities predict religious belief, paranormal belief, and belief in supernatural purpose. Cognition, 134, 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.COGNITION.2014.09.008
44.
LipkaM. (2019). 10 facts about atheists. Pew Research Center. Retrieved October 28, 2020 from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/06/10-facts-about-atheists/.
45.
LugoL. (2009). Eastern, New Age Beliefs Widespread: Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths. Retrieved October 21, 2020 from http://www.pewforum.org/2009/12/09/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths/#ghosts-fortunetellers-and-communicating-with-the-dead.
46.
LupferM. B.De PaolaS. J.BrockK. F.ClementL. (1994). Making secular and religious attributions: The availability hypothesis revisited. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33(2), 162–171. https://doi.org/10.2307/1386602
47.
MartinezB. C. (2013). Is evil good for religion? The link between supernatural evil and religious commitment. Review of Religious Research, 55(2), 319–338, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-012-0094-x
McAdamsD. P.PalsJ. L. (2006). A new big five: Fundamental principles for an integrative science of personality. American Psychologist, 61(3), 204–217, https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.61.3.204
50.
McCraeR. R.CostaP. T. (2008). The five-factor theory of personality. In Handbook of personality: Theory and research (3rd ed.). pp. 159-181 Guilford Press.
51.
McCreeryC.ClaridgeG. (1996). A study of hallucination in normal subjects—I. Self-report data. Personality and Individual Differences, 21(5), 739–747, https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(96)00115-8
MercierB.KramerS. R.ShariffA. F. (2018). Belief in God: Why people believe, and why they don't. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(4), 263–268. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418754491
54.
MinerM.McKnightJ. (1999). Religious attributions: Situational factors and effects on coping. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 38(2), 274–, https://doi.org/10.2307/1387794
55.
NieF.OlsonD. V. A. (2016). Demonic influence: The negative mental health effects of belief. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 55(3), 498–515. https://doi.org/10.1111/JSSR.12287
OnoshimaT.ShiinaK.UedaT.KuboS. (2019). Decline of Pearson's R with categorization of variables: A large-scale simulation. Behaviormetrika, 46(2), 389–399, https://doi.org/10.1007/s41237-019-00089-1
59.
PargamentK. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. Guilford Press.
60.
PargamentK. I.Magyar-RussellG. M.Murray-SwankN. A. (2005). The sacred and the search for significance: Religion as a unique process. Journal of Social Issues, 61(4), 665–687. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00426.x
61.
ParkC. L. (2013). Religion and meaning. In PaloutzianR. F.ParkC. L. (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 357–379). Guilford Press.
62.
PennycookG.CheyneJ. A.SeliP.KoehlerD. J.FugelsangJ. A. (2012). Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief. Cognition, 123(3), 335–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.COGNITION.2012.03.003
R Core Team. (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. In R Foundation for Statistical Computing. http://www.R-project.org.
65.
RevelleW. (2007). Experimental approaches to the study of personality. In RobinsR. W.FraleyR. C.KruegerR. F. (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in personality psychology (pp. 37–61). Guilford.
66.
RevelleW. (2020). psych: Procedures for Personality and Psychological Research. In https://CRAN.R-project.org/package = psych Version = 2.0.7.
67.
RevelleW.RocklinT. (1979). Very simple structure - alternative procedure for estimating the optimal number of interpretable factors. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 14(4), 403–414, https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr1404_2
68.
RoetsA.Van HielA. (2011). Item selection and validation of a brief, 15-item version of the need for closure scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(1), 90–94, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.09.004
69.
RoseE. D.ExlineJ. J. (2012). Personality, spirituality, and religion. In MillerL. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of psychology and spirituality (pp. 85–103). University of Oxford Press.
70.
RosseelY. (2012). Lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48(2), 1–, https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v048.i02
71.
RoutledgeC.AbeytaA. A.RoylanceC. (2016). An existential function of evil: The effects of religiosity and compromised meaning on belief in magical evil force. Motivation and Emotion, 40(5), 681–688. https://doi.org/10.1007/S11031-016-9571-9
72.
SaroglouV. (2002). Religion and the five factors of personality: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Individual Differences, 32(1), 15–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00233-6
73.
SaroglouV. (2010). Religiousness as a cultural adaptation of basic traits: A five-factor model perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 108–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309352322
74.
SaroglouV. (2017). Culture, personality, and religiosity. In ChurchA. T. (Ed.), The praeger handbook of personality across cultures. Vol 2: Culture and characteristic adaptations. pp. 153-184. Praeger.
75.
SchofieldM. B.BakerI. S.StaplesP.SheffieldD. (2016). Mental representations of the supernatural: A cluster analysis of religiosity, spirituality and paranormal belief. Personality and Individual Differences, 101, 419–424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.020
76.
ShenhavA.RandD. G.GreeneJ. D. (2012). Divine intuition: Cognitive style influences belief in God. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(3), 423–428. https://doi.org/10.1037/A0025391
77.
ShiD.Maydeu-OlivaresA.RosseelY. (2020). Assessing fit in ordinal factor analysis models: SRMR vs. RMSEA. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 27(1), 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2019.1611434
78.
SilviaP. J.NusbaumE. C.BeatyR. E. (2014). Blessed are the meek? Honesty-humility, agreeableness, and the HEXACO structure of religious beliefs, motives, and values. Personality and Individual Differences, 66(0), 19–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.02.043
79.
SotoC. J.JohnO. P. (2017). The next Big five inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117–143. https://doi.org/10.1037/PSPP0000096
80.
SteinbergM.SchnallM. (2010). The stranger in the mirror: The hidden epidemic. Harper Collins.
81.
SulsJ.MartinR. (2005). The daily life of the garden variety neurotic: Reactivity, stressor exposure, mood spillover, and maladaptive coping. Journal of Personality, 73(6), 1485–1510, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00356.x
82.
ThomsonP.JaqueS. V. (2014). Unresolved mourning, supernatural beliefs and dissociation: A mediation analysis. Attachment & Human Development, 16(5), 499–514, https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2014.926945
83.
TobacykJ.MilfordG. (1983). Belief in paranormal phenomena: Assessment instrument development and implications for personality functioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(5), 1029–1037, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.5.1029
84.
UtinansA.AncaneG.TobacykJ.BoyrazG.LivingstonM.TobacykJ. (2015). Paranormal beliefs of Latvian college students: A Latvian version of the revised paranormal belief scale. Psychological Reports, 116(1), 116–126, https://doi.org/10.2466/08.17.PR0.116k14w9
85.
WallerN.PutnamF. W.CarlsonE. B. (1996). Types of dissociation and dissociative types: A taxometric analysis of dissociative experiences. Psychological Methods, 1(3), 300–321, https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.1.3.300
86.
WearyG.StanleyM. A.HarveyJ. H. (1989). Attribution. Springer Science & Business Media.
87.
WebsterD. M.KruglanskiA. W. (1994). Individual differences in need for cognitive closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(6), 1049–1062, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1049
88.
WeeksM.GilmoreA. (2017). The implicit associations between religious and nonreligious supernatural constructs. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 27(2), 89–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2016.126504
89.
WeeksM.LupferM. B. (2000). Religious attributions and proximity of influence: An investigation of direct interventions and distal explanations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 39(3), 348–362, https://doi.org/10.1111/0021-8294.00029
90.
WhiteC.BaimelA.NorenzayanA. (2020). Cognitive pathways to belief in karma and belief in God.
91.
WiltJ. A.ExlineJ. J.RoseE. D. (2020). Personality, spirituality, and religion. In MillerL (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of psychology and spirituality (2nd ed.). University of Oxford Press.
92.
WiltJ. A.ExlineJ. J.RoseE. D. (in press). Personality, spirituality, and religion. In MillerL. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of psychology and spirituality (2nd ed.). University of Oxford Press.
93.
WiltJ. A.StaunerN.ExlineJ. (2019). Supernatural attributions for life-changing events. Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
94.
WiltJ. A.StaunerN.ExlineJ. J. (2020). Beliefs and experiences involving God, the devil, spirits, and fate: Social, motivational, and cognitive predictors. Under review.
95.
WolfradtU. (1997). Dissociative experiences, trait anxiety and paranormal beliefs. Personality and Individual Differences, 23(1), 15–19, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(97)00043-3
96.
WolfradtU.OubaidV.StraubeE. R.BischoffN.MischoJ. (1999). Thinking styles, schizotypal traits and anomalous experiences. Personality and Individual Differences, 27(5), 821–830, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00031-8
97.
WongS.WaiteT.WassonR. S.ArtschwagerA.PargamentK. I.O'BrienW. H. (2019). The hand of God or the work of the devil? Spiritual appraisals and psychological adjustment after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy19(1). 224-245. https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.12184
98.
WoodL.BurkeE.ByrneR.PyleM.ChapmanN.MorrisonA. (2015). Stigma in psychosis: A thematic synthesis of current qualitative evidence. Psychosis, 7(2), 152–165, https://doi.org/10.1080/17522439.2014.926561
99.
XiaY.YangY. (2019). RMSEA, CFI, and TLI in structural equation modeling with ordered categorical data: The story they tell depends on the estimation methods. Behavior Research Methods, 51(1), 409–428, https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-1055-2
100.
YsseldykR.MathesonK.AnismanH. (2010). Religiosity as identity: Toward an understanding of religion from a social identity perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 60–. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309349693
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
