Psi may look like luck: perceived luckiness and beliefs about luck in relation to precognition
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Luke, David P. 
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-2453, Delanoy, Deborah and Sherwood, Simon J.
(2008)
Psi may look like luck: perceived luckiness and beliefs about luck in relation to precognition.
In: Proceedings of presented papers - 4th Psi Meeting: Parapsychology & Psychology - IV Encontro Psi: Parapsicologia & Psicologia.
Faculdades Integradas Espírita, Curitiba, Brasil, pp. 27-28.
Abstract
Introduction: Smith (1998) has shown that different people use the term “luck” to mean different things, some of which might be used euphemistically to account for psi experiences. Purpose: However, previous luck-psi experiments have only measured perceived personal luckiness (PPL) without investigating what participants actually mean by the term luck when they say that they are lucky, so luck beliefs were also investigated in relation to psi in this study using the Questionnaire of Beliefs about Luck (QBL).
The literature on psi and luck indicates that luck might best be understood by Stanford’s model of ‘psi-mediated instrumental response’ (PMIR).
Subjects/Methods: A non-intentional, PMIR-type, precognition experiment with static fractal images as decoys
and targets was run with 100 participants and utilised erotic images as a psi incentive, and a boring vigilance task as a psi disincentive. The degree of incentive/disincentive changed incrementally in proportional to psi task performance.
Main outcome measures: Each participant performed ten forced-choice trials giving a mean psi score for each participant of 2.85 (MCE = 2.5) resulting in a significant precognition effect overall (t[99] = 2.508, p = .007 one-tailed, z = 2.44).
Results: Furthermore, PPL and the belief that luck was controllable (Luck subscale of the QBL) were found to correlate significantly with precognition performance (r = .263, p = .004 one-tailed, for both), however, only the Luck subscale was found to be a significant predictor variable of psi score (adjusted R2 = .06, t[99] = 2.7, p = .008), indicating that beliefs about luck are more salient to psi performance than PPL alone. Non-intentional psi scores also correlated with belief in psi (rs[98]= .236, p = .009, one-tailed) and belief in the paranormal (rs[98]=.194, p = .026, one-tailed), offering tentative support for the notion that psi ability drives belief initially. Precognition performance was also found to be significantly higher amongst the erotically reactive than the erotically unreactive (t[99] = 1.65, p = .05, one-tailed) offering indirect support for the experiment’s validity and the need-serving aspect of PMIR. A number of other exploratory hypotheses are discussed.
Discussion and conclusion: The findings support the suggested relationship between luck and psi but further investigations should consider beliefs about luck not just perceived luckiness.
| Item Type: | Conference Proceedings |
|---|---|
| Title of Proceedings: | Proceedings of presented papers - 4th Psi Meeting: Parapsychology & Psychology - IV Encontro Psi: Parapsicologia & Psicologia |
| Additional Information: | [1] This was a paper, presented at the 4th Psi Meeting: Parapsychology & Psychology, held 10-13 July 2008, Curitiba, Brazil. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | luck, precognition, belief, psi, paranormal |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology |
| Pre-2014 Departments: | School of Health & Social Care School of Health & Social Care > Department of Psychology & Counselling |
| Related URLs: | |
| Last Modified: | 14 Oct 2016 09:20 |
| URI: | http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/8222 |
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