title: Skepticism: Genuine unbelief or implicit beliefs in the supernatural?
abstract: We examined whether skeptics hold implicit supernatural beliefs or implicit cognitive underpinnings of the beliefs. In study 1 (N=57), participants read a biological or a religious story about death. The story content had no effect on skeptics' (or believers') afterlife beliefs. Study 2 examined the relationships between religious and non-religious paranormal beliefs and implicit views about whether supernatural and religious phenomena are imaginary or real (n1=33, n2=31). The less supernatural beliefs were endorsed the easier it was to connect "supernatural" with "imaginary". Study 3 (N=63) investigated whether participants' supernatural beliefs and ontological confusions differ between speeded and non-speeded response conditions. Only non-analytical skeptics' ontological confusions increased in speeded conditions. The results indicate that skeptics overall do not hold implicit supernatural beliefs, but that non-analytically thinking skeptics may, under supporting conditions, be prone to biases that predispose to supernatural beliefs.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, P.O. Box 9, University of Helsinki, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: marjaana.lindeman@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Marjaana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lindeman
authors.affiliation: Division of Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, P.O. Box 9, University of Helsinki, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: annika.svedholm@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Annika M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Svedholm-Häkkinen
authors.affiliation: Division of Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, P.O. Box 9, University of Helsinki, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: tapani.riekki@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Tapani
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Riekki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010268:Parapsychology; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Afterlife; Analytical thinking; Implicit supernatural beliefs; Paranormal; Skepticism