 Can you tell me a little bit about your research into the paranormal? Well, I started my working life many years ago as a magician and so lots of my research looks at how people kid themselves that they are looking at something paranormal and actually it has a normal explanation because that's what magicians do all the time. They convince you they're performing miracles and actually there's a very ugly normal explanation for what it is they're up to. So I guess I use that background to springboard into looking into paranormal claims. So what are we talking here when we say belief in the paranormal? Psychics talking to the dead. What are some specific examples that you've dealt with? Yeah, so I've looked at mediums who claim to talk to the dead. Psychics who will tell you something about yourself that they allegedly picked up through their amazing abilities and sometimes predict the future. And that can take many forms. It might be a tarot reader. It might be a palmist. It might be somebody looking at the tea leaves or a crystal ball. Very rarely you will get people who claim psychokinesis, mind over matter. So they'll focus on a spoon for example and it'll start to bend something like that. All those things would come under the remit of extraordinary abilities. I've seen some pretty convincing examples of psychic ability. So a psychic might claim that something will happen in the future and it seems very detailed and specific. And then the person who's being read it turns out to be true for them. What's your response to that? I think when you go to a psychic or a medium there are several psychological mechanisms at play. So one is what's called Barnum statements, these very general statements that are true of everyone but we think they're just true of us. So the notion that you look at someone's palm and say you've got a lot of untapped creative potential. We all like to go, oh yes, my goodness, how terribly insightful. So they're just true of everyone. Some of them are double-headers. So you're the sort of person that enjoys going to parties but also you enjoy being alone with a book and of course that covers both extroverts and introverts. Other times there's a lot of predictions being thrown out and then what happens is that if the prediction comes true the person remembers the reading and forgets all of the other predictions which didn't come true, which are kind of spread betting, if you like. Sometimes there's self-fulfilling prophecy. You say to somebody, oh my goodness, you're applying for some sort of new job and they go, yes, oh it's going to go really well. Well now they're extra confident and they go into the interview and so the prediction creates the future. So most of the time when someone's talking to us and they talk about what they're going to do that evening or whatever it's pretty vague and we sharpen up those comments to make sense of them and that's what's happening when you go to a psychic. The difference is they can't actually predict the future. So the fact that we are so good at communicating with one another that we can infer what somebody means even though the words aren't there means that we're wonderful interpersonally and it's also the price you pay then to go along to a psychic and trip yourself up thinking they can actually predict the future. So all of these different mechanisms are at play. To me what's interesting is it doesn't look like that. It looks like you go in, this person tells you all about yourself, predicts something about the future, comes true, isn't that incredible? Actually it's quite complicated. There isn't one psychology there, there are several psychological mechanisms. It seems a common explanation for these kind of beliefs especially if you're a non-believer in the paranormal is people are just stupid, they'll believe anything but you mentioned that there are a lot of psychological mechanisms behind there. Do you think it's true that psychological mechanisms are a more powerful way to explain this stuff than say motivations and personality? I think the notion that people who believe in this stuff are stupid simply isn't true. There's been some research looking at IQ which is if you like a measure of intelligence and a belief in the paranormal, there's not much of a relationship there. There might be a small one but it's not particularly striking. I think what's happening is that a lot of people want to believe in this stuff. Why else would you go to a psychic? You are probably looking for some sort of guidance and so I always say it's a little bit like going to a doctor if you didn't feel very well and the doctor says well what are the symptoms? You say well you're the expert, you tell me. It would be a ridiculous thing to say. The two of you are there to work on the problem together and I think that's the attitude of most people going to a psychic. I have a problem, we are here to work on it together and so all of those biases flow in as you try and make sense of the situation. And there is some research suggesting that if people are having a tough time in their lives if they're facing uncertainty or as a child they face a lot of uncertainty and upset then that tends to bias them towards believing in the paranormal thinking there is a magical solution to their problems. So the people that are going along to a psychic or a medium can be quite psychologically vulnerable and of course one of the issues here is whether going along to the psychic or medium helps and whether they'd be better off in a more mainstream counselling scenario. Can you tell me about the nature of superstitious belief? Why do you suppose it is that we all believe some pretty strange things? Well superstition is fascinating in part because it's so widespread so although only a third half of people believe in a psychic or a medium almost 90-95% of people would touch wood, cross their fingers, whatever it is so in that sense we're all irrational, let us not believe that we're rational creatures. Why do we go for it? Well I suspect because we're told from a very young age that there might be something to it. Otherwise you might get bad luck and that's a real problem and it only takes a few seconds just to touch wood or whatever. If it was a very elaborate ritual I suspect it wouldn't catch on quite so quickly if the idea was you have to do three forward rolls and a star jump every single time you say something like I hope that goes well then people wouldn't be quite as superstitious so part of it is it costs very little and if it is true the benefits are enormous. The other thing is that we often are one trial learners so if we do something like we wear our lucky shirt and we go along to a job interview and it's oh my goodness it goes wonderfully then we think wow this somehow this shirt is somehow linked to me doing well and I'll wear it again next time in exactly the same way that sports people will lace up their shoes in a certain way because when they did that once suddenly it was a great performance. So we are naturally good at linking things like that which leads us to be superstitious particularly under conditions of uncertainty and of course the most superstitious groups are sports people who have to perform in a certain window of time actors are exactly the same so it's uncertainty that drives that belief. I would say to both skeptics and believers try and base your thoughts and your beliefs on the evidence. I mean that's what you do in many different areas of your life you wouldn't go along to buy a used or a secondhand car and you go I know I'll trust my intuition if you didn't understand about cars you'd take somebody with you that did because this is an area where you need evidence and I would say if you're going along to a psychic or a medium understand the tricks of the trade be an informed client and if you see them being used get out of there. My name is Richard I think about the paranormal.