Human beings are, in general, a superstitious lot. Our tendency to see
patterns where they don’t exist, and to falsely apply cause to effect,
may have helped keep us alive back when we were little more than a band
of frightened critters scurrying about the savanna. Those tendencies
linger to the present day, reflected in our stubborn belief in
completely irrational things: Rabbit’s feet. Horoscopes. A return to the
gold standard.
The Chapman Survey on American Fears, a
comprehensive study of the fears, phobias and irrational beliefs of the
American people, was released this week and contains an interesting
section on belief in the paranormal. The results are drawn from a
nationally-representative sample of 2,500 American adults.
Source: New Haven Register
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