Activity #3

In the following, Paul Price discusses the difficulty of getting students to question improbable beliefs that are widely shared by those with whom they interact every day. Paul makes suggestions regarding ways to get students to add more skeptical influences into their social networks. For an article on "shared realities," see:
Hardin, C.D., & Higgins, E.T. (1996). "Shared reality: How social verification makes the subjective objective". In R.M. Sorrentino & E.T. Higgins (eds.), Handbook of Motivation and Cognition (Vol. 3; pp. 28-84), New York: Guilford Press.

Fri, 5 May 2000
Paul C. Price
California State University, Fresno
paulpri@csufresno.edu

I have been thinking about a new approach to teaching students to be skeptical of paranormal phenomena, but I think this basic approach can be extended in many different directions. It is based on the social psychological concept of "shared reality" (see, e.g., the chapter by Tory Higgins and colleagues in the "Handbook of Cognition and Motivation" from a couple of years ago). The basic idea is that much of what we believe we believe ƒ because everyone else in our social network believes it too. Furthermore, we mutually reinforce these beliefs for each other whenever we interact. As a result, it can be very difficult to change themƒ.

A major difficulty with teaching skepticism of paranormal phenomena is that many students (and probably the majority at some institutions, including the CSU) are part of one or more social networks in which paranormal phenomena are part of the shared realityƒ. The neat thing about the shared reality idea, for our purposes, is that it has clear implications for teaching skepticism. The basic idea is that we need to introduce students into a social network in which the shared reality is that paranormal phenomena should be considered highly suspect. How about these ideas?

1) Encourage skeptical students to share their beliefs with the class.

2) Present the results of a poll of psychology (and other) faculty on their belief in paranormal phenomena.

3) Have students interview people you know to be skeptics (e.g., other faculty) on their beliefs.

4) Inform students about the various skeptics organizations that are out there (e.g., CSICOP) and encourage them to join.

5) Form a skeptics club of your own in your department, and publicize your beliefs and activities.

6) Create a bulletin board with a "paranormal hall of shame" (e.g., Enquirer headlines), which becomes a sort of joke that everyone in your department can be in on.

7) Encourage other faculty to discuss these issues in other courses.

8) Incorporate "skeptical inquiry" into your departmentÍs mission statement or formal statement of learning objectives, and publicize this widely.