What’s supposed to happen during a ghost hunt? Do descriptions of aliens differ across cultures? Are footprints and sounds evidence of Bigfoot? Which came first, the belief or the media representation? All these questions exemplify reasons why people believe in the paranormal.
On episode 136 of The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, and Blake Loepp spoke with Christopher Bader, PhD, professor and chair of the department of sociology at Chapman University, about the reasons for paranormal beliefs.
The author of Paranormal America (2017) and the forthcoming Paranormal Britain (2026), Christopher has studied the supernatural for more than two decades. He has participated in ghost hunts, observed support groups for people who report UFO abductions, and joined Bigfoot investigations.
Let’s bring a sociological perspective to the relationships between paranormal beliefs and gender, personality, culture, religion, and media preferences.
Supernatural Beliefs and Gender
As a sociologist, Christopher studies how ideas shared within a group or subculture affect how people behave, interact, and frame their beliefs. “I’m not trying to prove or disprove these things, but I am interested in the people who believe them,” he said. Some people are more likely to hold supernatural beliefs than others.
The paranormal covers a wide range of topics: Bigfoot, UFOs, ghosts, psychic powers, reptilians, Atlantis, and so much more. Yet they can be divided into two different realms: (1) using the paranormal for self-knowledge or self-discovery and (2) using the paranormal to prove or disprove the existence of something.
Gender affects which type of paranormal belief someone is likely to hold. Women tend to believe in the paranormal for enlightenment, such as for speaking with dead loved ones or perceiving the future. Men tend to use the paranormal for discovery, such as looking for UFOs or Bigfoot.
These differences align with gender-based psychological differences in interests, called person-thing orientation. Women are more likely interested in their social environment, or what they can know about themselves and others. Men are more likely interested in what they can know about their physical environment—a lost city, an undiscovered species, or an alien visitation.
Supernatural Beliefs and Personality
Christopher’s impression of people who hold paranormal beliefs is that they are highly creative. “They’re good storytellers. They’re good artists,” he said, adding that his office is covered with drawings of paranormal encounters. He has also noticed a conspiracy orientation. That is, there's a high correlation between believing the paranormal and believing conspiracy theories. Both tend to discount conventional scientific or societal beliefs.
In terms of the five-factor model (FFM), these characteristics correspond to openness to experience. Scoring high on openness to experience would explain accepting unconventional ideas and being interested in alternative perspectives, such as the paranormal.
In Hogan terms, high creativity and holding extraordinary beliefs relates to the Imaginative scale on the Hogan Development Survey (HDS). Imaginative measures innovation and creativity, which can become eccentricity and impracticality at the extreme. It includes holding fantastical beliefs and considering one’s ideas to be ahead of their time.
UFO believers, for example, often think they are learning information or truth about the world from aliens. “What I see is this idea that ‘I am the person who knows the truth, and other people just don’t know the truth yet,’” Christopher said.
Do Paranormal Beliefs Vary Across Cultures?
Paranormal beliefs vary across cultures to an extent. Different specific paranormal phenomena do appear prominently in some places and not others. The crop circle is big in the UK but much less so elsewhere. The evil eye is prevalent in Italy but unknown in most other places.
Comparison surveys that Christopher has conducted in the US and the UK showed that Americans seem more likely to hold paranormal beliefs than Britons. He found that 53 percent of Americans and 36 percent of Britons believe in ghosts. About one-third of Americans believe in aliens, compared with about one-fifth of Britons.
Different cultures also have different cryptids, or undiscovered animals. North America has the Bigfoot, Australia has the yowie, China has the yeren—all described as similar to the yeti. Central Africa has the mokele-mbembe, said to be large dinosaur-shaped reptile. Likewise, many people around the globe report alien sightings, but the alien descriptions differ regionally, whether gray-skinned, gigantic, or small and hairy. “While the phenomena can be similar across cultures, the exact form they take can differ quite a bit,” Christopher said.
How Do Religious Beliefs Affect Paranormal Beliefs?
Both religious and paranormal beliefs are based on claims that haven’t yet been proven. He sees religion and the paranormal differ in that religion has a fixed, authoritative perspective about truth while the paranormal does not. “If one day someone brings in a Bigfoot, then the Bigfoot stops being paranormal,” Christopher said.
“My coauthors and I have found that the person who is most likely to be paranormal—having a lot of those beliefs or experiences—is someone who’s moderately religious,” he said. Moderately religious, he explained, refers to someone who may belong to a religious group but holds their views loosely, such as a belief in the afterlife that isn’t rigid or literal.
Christopher explained this correlation in terms of a bell curve. At the bottom left of the curve, people who don’t believe in God don’t tend to believe in the paranormal either. At the peak of the curve, people who have moderate religious beliefs tend to be the most paranormal. And at the bottom right of the curve, people who adhere closely to a specific religion don’t tend to have paranormal beliefs. Rather, they may apply a religious interpretation to what others interpret as the paranormal. Christopher described this type of viewpoint: “Yes, people do actually see UFOs, but that is the devil trying to trick you.”
How Does Media Shape Paranormal Beliefs?
“Ideas that are presented on shows about the supernatural do filter down and have a big effect on what people believe,” said Christopher. The media image of an alien with gray skin and oversized black eyes in a large, bald head has influenced how people think an alien is supposed to look. Essentially, the media and the paranormal are locked in a chicken-egg conundrum. Does watching the shows lead people to the belief, or does holding the belief lead people to the shows?
Christopher’s survey data show a strong relationship between watching paranormal shows and believing in paranormal things. Belief in Bigfoot, for instance, has increased from about 8% to about 15% in the US in recent years. Christopher also said ghost-hunting shows have affected how people think a ghost hunt is supposed to happen. In his classroom lectures in the early 2000s, Christopher would have to explain what a ghost hunt was. Today, his students already have an idea of how people and ghosts should behave during a ghost hunt.
Searching for Ghosts and Bigfoot
Christopher, who has participated in numerous searches for paranormal phenomena, spoke of two memorable experiences, a ghost hunt in England and a Bigfoot hunt in America.
The most haunted house in Britain is said to be 30 East Drive in Pontefract, England, home to the Black Monk of Pontefract. While staying in the house overnight, Christopher was prompted to climb a flight of stairs that the demonic monk was said to guard. “In all the ghost hunts I’ve been on, I’m under the impression that the people who were there were genuine. But in terms of me seeing something unexplainable firsthand, I have not,” he said.
One night, while hunting Bigfoot in Texas, Christopher’s guide pointed out a terrible rotten smell. “The Bigfoot hunters would say unequivocally that I likely smelled a Bigfoot there,” Christopher said. Afterwards, the group heard what sounded like knocking on a tree; Bigfoot supposedly knocks with a stick to communicate the presence of intruders. The following morning, human-shaped bare footprints were found nearby. Did Christopher smell, hear, and see those things? Yes. Was it a cryptid? That’s open to interpretation.
“I expect these beliefs to grow dramatically because of the democratization of the paranormal,” said Christopher. People who are engaged in paranormal investigations often livestream to hundreds or thousands of people. Not only are the viewers experiencing a ghost hunt, but they’re also interpreting and even virtually participating in the events. “When large communities come together and share their beliefs, that will only make them grow,” he said.
Listen to this conversation in full on episode 136 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!