Lise Lesaffre

Les Toises

Magical beliefs and experiences are common in the general population. Developmental studies show that magical beliefs are integral part of children's development. Once children reach the next level of their cognitive development, they are considered to abandon magical thinking in favor of rational, more scientific reasoning. According to these deve...

Beliefs in supernatural entities are integral parts of both our culturally embedded religions and more individualized magical belief systems (e.g., paranormal beliefs, spirituality). Scholars regularly link the occurrence of beliefs to individuals’ cognitive and affective ways of information processing. For magical beliefs in particular, we expect...

What's next? Implications for research, teaching and mental illness.

Paranormal beliefs (PBs), such as the belief in the soul, or in extrasensory perception, are common in the general population. While there is information regarding what these beliefs correlate with (e.g., cognitive biases, personality styles), there is little information regarding the causal direction between these beliefs and their correlates. To...

Paranormal beliefs (PBs) are common in adults. There are numerous psychological correlates of PBs and associated theories, yet, we do not know whether such correlates reinforce or result from PBs. To understand causality, we developed an experimental design in which participants experience supposedly paranormal events. Thus, we can test an event's...

In previous studies, we observed that when experiencing a supposedly paranormal event, many observers were willing to endorse that this was a demonstration of a genuine paranormal phenomena. Also, observers seemed confused and emotionally involved (Lesaffre et al., 2018). Yet, these latter observations were anecdotal. In two studies, we set out to...

Beliefs are persistent cognitive processes that guide human thought and behaviour. We can be aware of these beliefs, but not necessarily. These beliefs determine how we perceive and integrate upcoming information, in particular when they are conforming with our pre-existing ideas and prior expectations. Of these, paranormal beliefs are particularly...

Experiencing the impossible & emotions

And its link to embodiment...

Finally adults and childrens are not so different...

How it impacts beliefs...

Humans are attracted to paranormal and magical explanations of events, (e.g. psychic demonstrations, séances, palm readings), and whilst there is no scientific evidence to support these explanations, beliefs in the paranormal are endorsed by a substantial proportion of the general population. We investigated whether preexisting magical beliefs and...