Gallup poll shows that Americans' belief in the paranormal persists

Despite the best efforts of CSICOP and other skeptical organizations, the results of a poll conducted June 6 through 8, 2005, by the Gallup Organization show that very nearly three quarters of Americans continue to believe in the paranormal.

Participants were presented with a list of ten potential paranormal beliefs: extrasensory perception (41 percent of the respondents acknowledge belief in this item), haunted houses (37 percent), ghosts (32 percent), telepathy (31 percent), clairvoyance (26 percent), astrology (25 percent), communication with the dead (21 percent), witches (21 percent), reincarnation (20 percent), and channeling spiritual entities (9 percent). Gallup designated these items paranormal because they "require the belief that humans have more than the 'normal' five senses." Three other beliefs were presented in the poll that don't meet this criterium for paranormality: psychic healing--because "the healing powers of the mind have been demonstrated empirically, reflected in the power of placebos" (55 percent); demonic possession--because it is unclear how many respondents "interpret[ed that statement] in metaphorical terms" (42 percent); and extraterrestrial visitations--because "the existence of extra-terrestrial (sic) beings and their ability to visit earth are subject to empirical verification" (24 percent).

Gallup's analysis of the raw data revealed that 73 percent, almost three quarters of the people who responded to the poll, believe in at least one of the ten items that were presented to them, down only very slightly from the 76 percent that was determined by an identical poll that was conducted in 2001. Only one percent believe in all ten items, but as the number of items is reduced from ten, the cumulative percentage of believers rises dramatically. Data from similar polls going back to 1990 indicate a steady, if slow, rise in belief in a number of the items listed.

These results are statistically relevant across lines of "age, gender, education, race, and region of the country," according to Gallup. There is, however, some difference between Christians and non-Christians: the former group scores a 75 percent likelihood of belief, while the latter scores 66 percent. But both groups, as these statistics demonstrate, have a paranormal-positive majority.

On the positive Side, at least from a skeptical perspective, the poll also showed that 27 percent of the respondents believe in none of the ten items listed.

One thousand and two people, age eighteen and older, were surveyed for this most recent poll via telephone, and Gallup reports a 95 percent confidence interval in the data with a maximum margin of sampling error of [+ or -] 3. The choices of answers that were offered for each question were "Believe in," "Not sure about," "Don't believe," and "No opinion."

David Park Musella is an editorial assistant with SKEPTICAL INQUIRER.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group