“Everybody knows parapsychology is not a real science”: Public understanding of parapsychology

Parapsychologists purport to apply scientific method to the investigation of commonly reported exceptional experiences and phenomena. Despite over a hundred years of associated research effort, “the status of parapsychology as a scientific endeavour is disputed by a substantial section of the contemporary mainstream scientific community” (Irwin, 2007). This situation seems less regrettable when it is placed in a larger context. In fact, many people perceive the study of human behavior as unscientific (Lilienfeld, 2012). This author argued that psychological science is experiencing a public perception problem that has been caused by both public misconceptions about psychology, as well as the psychological science community’s failure to distinguish itself from pop psychology and questionable therapeutic practices. 

Lecture Presenter

Renaud Evrard Author