'Seeing Is Believing': Does Experience Mediate the Relationship between Obsessive-Compulsive Tendencies and Supernatural Beliefs?

Abstract

This study was an attempt to determine the personality traits, including obsessive-compulsive (OC) tendencies, implicated in the formation of paranormal and religious belief systems and whether experience may mediate this relationship. Furthermore, the study examined the relationship of identity with experience and belief. A battery of questionnaires on personality, experience, and belief was administered in a student sample (N = 211) and in a community sample (N = 81). Results indicated that OC tendencies was not a helpful variable in distinguishing paranormal and religious believers, but other personality predictors’ (e.g., absorption, transliminality) relationships with belief were significantly mediated by experience depending on the belief system.