Content provided in partnership with
The roles of religion, spirituality, and genetics in paranormal beliefs: recent studies indicate that people who are spiritual but do not participate in organized religion may have the strongest belief in psychic abilities. Also, emerging research indicates that genetic factors may have a role in spiritual and paranormal beliefs
Skeptical Inquirer, March-April, 2004 by James E. Kennedy
The emerging evidence indicates that men have evolved characteristics that have adaptive value for competing for resources, developing tools, and producing and providing for descendants. The differences between men and women regarding spirituality and the paranormal may reflect these underlying traits.
It is important to remember that these gender differences occur within the context of genetic diversity. Diversity of genetic traits is an underlying principle of evolution and must be present for natural selection to occur. Many biological mechanisms promote diversity (most notably sexual reproduction). The traits that direr between males and females can be assumed to be similar to the differences in height. Men have a genetic tendency to be taller than women, but, because of diversity, many women are taller than many men. The differences manifest as statistical trends. In addition, human personality and behavior depend on interactions between these genetic factors and environmental conditions, including social forces and previous experiences.
- Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »
As we have seen, genetic factors appear to have a role in spiritual beliefs, and possibly in paranormal beliefs; these factors may help to explain the widespread and persistent interest in these topics.
Notes
(1.) The data are from the Project Canada survey directed by Reginald Bibby of the University, of Lethbridge. The data and description of the methodology are available through the Web sire of the American Religion Archives at the Department of Sociology of Pennsylvania State University. The 1995 survey obtained data from 1,765 people, which was a 64 percent response rare. Weights for community size, gender, and age were applied to make the sample "highly representative of the Canadian population." The 95 percent confidence interval for the weighted data is four percentage points.
(2.) To evaluate the possibility that the associations with spirituality may be due primarily to the miraculous healing question, the data were examined separately for this question. For those who definitely believed in ESP and psychic powers, 81 percent indicated that spirituality was important. For those who definitely believed in miraculous healing, 87 percent indicated that spirituality was important.
References
Bouchard, T.J., M. McGue, D. Lykken, and A. Tellegen. 1999. Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: Genetic and environmental influences and personality correlates. Twin Research 2, 88-98.
Campbell, A. 2002. A Mind of Her Own: The Evolutionary Psychology of Women. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Geary, D.C. 1998. Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Goode, E. 2000. Two paranormalisms or two and a half? An empirical exploration. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER 24(1): 29-35.
Hamer, D., and P. Copeland. 1998. Living with Our Genes. New York: Doubleday.
Irwin, H. 1993. Belief in the paranormal: A review of the empirical literature. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 87(1): 1-39.
Find Research Guides for:
Find Featured Titles for: Home & Garden
Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »