On the Adaptive Value of Paranormal Beliefs - a Qualitative Study

Ten female and five male participants (age range 28–50 years) were recruited at esoteric fairs or via esoteric chatrooms. In a guided face-to-face interview, they reported origins and contents of their beliefs in e.g. esoteric practices, supernatural beings, rebirthing, channeling. Transcripts of th...

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Autores principales: Betsch, Tilmann, Jäckel, Paul, Hammes, Mareike, Brinkmann, Babette Julia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7813974/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33464467
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12124-020-09594-5
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author Betsch, Tilmann
Jäckel, Paul
Hammes, Mareike
Brinkmann, Babette Julia
author_facet Betsch, Tilmann
Jäckel, Paul
Hammes, Mareike
Brinkmann, Babette Julia
author_sort Betsch, Tilmann
collection PubMed
description Ten female and five male participants (age range 28–50 years) were recruited at esoteric fairs or via esoteric chatrooms. In a guided face-to-face interview, they reported origins and contents of their beliefs in e.g. esoteric practices, supernatural beings, rebirthing, channeling. Transcripts of the tape-recorded reports were subjected to a qualitative analysis. Exhaustive categorization of the narratives’ content revealed that paranormal beliefs were functional with regard to two fundamental motives – striving for mastery and valuing me and mine (striving for a positive evaluation of the self). Moreover, paranormal beliefs paved the way for goal-setting and leading a meaningful life but, on the negative side, could also result in social exclusion. Results are discussed with reference to the adaptive value of paranormal beliefs.
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spelling pubmed-78139742021-01-18 On the Adaptive Value of Paranormal Beliefs - a Qualitative Study Betsch, Tilmann Jäckel, Paul Hammes, Mareike Brinkmann, Babette Julia Integr Psychol Behav Sci Brief Communication Ten female and five male participants (age range 28–50 years) were recruited at esoteric fairs or via esoteric chatrooms. In a guided face-to-face interview, they reported origins and contents of their beliefs in e.g. esoteric practices, supernatural beings, rebirthing, channeling. Transcripts of the tape-recorded reports were subjected to a qualitative analysis. Exhaustive categorization of the narratives’ content revealed that paranormal beliefs were functional with regard to two fundamental motives – striving for mastery and valuing me and mine (striving for a positive evaluation of the self). Moreover, paranormal beliefs paved the way for goal-setting and leading a meaningful life but, on the negative side, could also result in social exclusion. Results are discussed with reference to the adaptive value of paranormal beliefs. Springer US 2021-01-19 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC7813974/ /pubmed/33464467 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12124-020-09594-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Brief Communication
Betsch, Tilmann
Jäckel, Paul
Hammes, Mareike
Brinkmann, Babette Julia
On the Adaptive Value of Paranormal Beliefs - a Qualitative Study
title On the Adaptive Value of Paranormal Beliefs - a Qualitative Study
title_full On the Adaptive Value of Paranormal Beliefs - a Qualitative Study
title_fullStr On the Adaptive Value of Paranormal Beliefs - a Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed On the Adaptive Value of Paranormal Beliefs - a Qualitative Study
title_short On the Adaptive Value of Paranormal Beliefs - a Qualitative Study
title_sort on the adaptive value of paranormal beliefs - a qualitative study
topic Brief Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7813974/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33464467
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12124-020-09594-5
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