The Learning Network: Do You Believe in ESP?

Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.

The psychology community is engaged in a debate over the appropriateness of publishing studies that appear to show evidence for extrasensory perception in a scholarly journal. Do you think it’s possible to scientifically study what is by definition extraordinary? And, do you believe in ESP and clairvoyance?

In the article “Journal’s Paper on ESP Expected to Prompt Outrage,” Benedict Carey looks at the various arguments being made by psychologists over the impending publication of a paper on ESP experiments:

The paper describes nine unusual lab experiments performed over the past decade by its author, Daryl J. Bem, an emeritus professor at Cornell, testing the ability of college students to accurately sense random events, like whether a computer program will flash a photograph on the left or right side of its screen. The studies include more than 1,000 subjects.

Some scientists say the report deserves to be published, in the name of open inquiry; others insist that its acceptance only accentuates fundamental flaws in the evaluation and peer review of research in the social sciences.

“It’s craziness, pure craziness. I can’t believe a major journal is allowing this work in,” Ray Hyman, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University Oregon and longtime critic of ESP research, said. “I think it’s just an embarrassment for the entire field.”

The editor of the journal, Charles Judd, a psychologist at the University of Colorado, said the paper went through the journal’s regular review process. “Four reviewers made comments on the manuscript,” he said, “and these are very trusted people.”

All four decided that the paper met the journal’s editorial standards, Dr. Judd added, even though “there was no mechanism by which we could understand the results.”

But many experts say that is precisely the problem. Claims that defy almost every law of science are by definition extraordinary and thus require extraordinary evidence. Neglecting to take this into account — as conventional social science analyses do — makes many findings look far more significant than they really are, these experts say.

Students: Tell us what you think about ESP and its cousins, clairvoyance and telepathy. Is these appropriate fields for scientific study? Do you think it’s possible to validate – or rule out – these paranormal phenomena by conducting experiments? Do you believe that people have ESP? Why or why not?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first name. For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.

View the original article here