Social influence on anomalous experiences and beliefs: the role of verbal suggestion on Memory and Testimony

• Grant number: 15/20112-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2016
• End date: July 03, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Social Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Wellington Zangari
• Grantee: Leonardo Breno Martins
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 17/17052-4 - Development of a new Brazilian measure of styles of thinking, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

In recent decades, psychology has retaken its interest in anomalous and religious experiences. Relevant aspects to social psychology include the possibilities and limits of social influence on anomalous experiences and related beliefs, in addition to what it can elucidate about the broader phenomenon of interpersonal interactions in different contexts. This project proposes the expansion of a known study about the effects of verbal influence on memory of a seemingly paranormal experience. Volunteers divided into several experimental and control groups will watch a video in which a false "psychic" simulates to bend a key on a table allegedly with the "power of the mind". To measure the effect of verbal suggestion, half of the volunteers will hear the false psychic suggesting that the warping happens gradually, while the other half will see the same video without such audio. In a crossed experimental design, one third of each group will have among the participants an actor who will comment aloud that the warping is happening. Another third will have the same actor commenting that the warping is not happening. And the last third will not have the actor inside the group. After the exhibition of the video, the effects of verbal suggestion on the memory of the volunteers about the key bending will be measured. Cross-analyzes will be conducted considering tendency to dissociation, prior beliefs, age, gender and group affiliation of the participants to discuss relations of different variables with the memory of the event. At the end, the accuracy of testimonies and the level of confidence of the volunteers about such accuracy will be measured. The results and derived discussions intend to contribute in understanding the impacts of social influence on memory and everyday assumption of paranormal and religious beliefs. (AU)