Cognitive Deficit Hypothesis Examples

Psychology in Action

Anomalistic: How useful is ‘the cognitive deficit hypothesis’ for understanding why people believe in the paranormal? Paranormal belief is defined as the belief in a phenomenon that cannot be explained by empirical or scientific research and does not follow the laws of nature, for example, the belief in the supernatural, extra-terrestrial life or psychic abilities. The cognitive deficit hypothesis is one explanation for why people believe in the paranormal. This associates the belief in the paranormal with relatively low cognitive abilities. In order to evaluate the usefulness of the cognitive deficit hypothesis as a tool to understand why people believe in the paranormal, this essay will examine what the cognitive

Smith, Foster, & Stovin, 1998), poor understanding of probability (e.g. Blackmore, 1997) or a lack of scientific education (e.g. Otis & Alcock, 1982). One idea of the cognitive deficit hypothesis is that believers in the paranormal have cognitive biases that make them more susceptible to believe in the paranormal. The cognitive biases can distort our image of events or situations that non-believers may perceive in a more logical way, for example, many reports of experiencing 'cold chills' or shivers when in a supposedly haunted house, believing it is a ghost that has walked past them. However, non-believers may perceive this in as being an environmental factor, such as a draught from a window or door, as the trigger to these sensations. Another factor which may lead people to believe in the paranormal is the way in which believers may perceive and misinterpret situations with a lack of probabilistic reasoning. For example, believing in the paranormal explanation when in fact another explanation is possible. This is due to believers, believing that an even is much less probable than it actually is and then explaining the end result as something abnormal or paranormal. Reseach by Blackmore and Troscianko (1985) supports this with their findings that those who believe in the paranormal performed worse in the probabilistic

It is found that people are much more likely to find a pattern in random displays when primed to see them. For example, seeing an image of a cat in a random arrangement of dots (van Prooijen, Douglas, & De Inocencio, 2017). This could help us in understanding why some people believe to have seen paranormal or abnormal things, such as objects appearing to move without reason or seeing ghosts in a haunted building if they had previously been told the building is haunted. This would be due to the fact they are expecting to see something abnormal. This could also work as an explanation to pareidolia, seeing faces in inanimate objects or strange places, as our brain is primed or predisposed to see faces, this is commonly seen as a type II error in cognition (Shermer, 2008). Environmental factors such as the way we are brought up, the beliefs of those in our social groups and the information we have access to could all prime us to believe in the paranormal, effectively leading us to believe the paranormal could be real therefore when we come across an event which is abnormal our mind could be deemed as paranormal. Seeing patterns in abnormal places and things could be seen as an evolutionary trait passed from our ancestors, rather than a cognitive