Demographic Predictors of Paranormal Beliefs among Bachelor of Science Students at the University of Gujrat

Abstract

This quantitative study examined the demographic predictors of paranormal beliefs in a sample of 200 BS students at the University of Gujrat, using the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS). The methodology utilized a neural network analysis for the initial prediction and the determination of the importance of the variables. It provides the relative error value that shows a no difference in training and testing. The results demonstrated that the model was fit. Result, clearly identified the importance of demographics: Ethnicity, age; and socioeconomic status (SES) as the three most important demographic predictors of paranormal beliefs. These results indicated that Gender had the least influence on paranormal beliefs (p = .024). Ethnicity contributed the most at 100.0%; Age was the next most important predictor of PT from a demographic perspective, producing a contribution of 79.3%; and socio-economic status contributed 62.7% to the total normalized importance of demographics. These findings suggest that culturally specific populations may have ethnic and socioeconomic factors that were stronger influences on paranormal beliefs than gender. Therefore, culturally specific populations and the importance of the role of culturally relevant demographic variables were important to consider in research on paranormal beliefs.

Keywords: Paranormal Beliefs; Demographic Predictors; Ethnicity; Age; Socioeconomic Status; Neural Network