PREVALENCE OF RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL PARANORMAL BELIEFS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

A quantitative analysis of paranormal beliefs among university students in Pakistan was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of these beliefs, and to compare male and female students on the basis of their beliefs in cultural and religious paranormal phenomena. A sample of 500 students from the University of Gujrat, Pakistan was administered the 35-item Religious and Cultural Paranormal Beliefs Scale to collect data. A cross-sectional design with a convenience sample method of data collection and the use of SPSS to analyse the data revealed that 89.6% of the students had some level of belief in the paranormal, and that 55.6% of the subjects had moderate paranormal beliefs, while 34% of the students had either strong or very strong beliefs. While independent t-tests revealed that there were significant differences between boys and girls on the total measure of paranormal beliefs (p = .002) and on the cultural dimension of paranormal beliefs (p = .001); there were no significant differences between boys and girls on the religious dimension of paranormal beliefs (p = .215) indicating that the girls and boys in the sample had a similar worldview regarding religion. The existence of paranormal beliefs at the university level in Pakistan illustrates the strength of academic belief systems involving paranormal constructs. Furthermore, the results of this study show the relationship between religious doctrine and cultural mysticism in Pakistan.