APP Study #1
People Appear Distressed by "Paranormal" Events
The base of the The Aster-P Project is its first study, People Appear Distressed by "Paranormal" Events. The name was chosen based on the results of the study. The project's origin is rooted in fandom for both paranormal and skeptical podcasts, although the contradiction is enough to drive a sane person mad. For fans of both science (skepticism) and paranormal, the gnawing question is: What can be done??
Looking to science for the best answer, the idea came up to identify the problem first.
SURVEY METHOD
How to survey the paranormal? National polls just measure "belief." The data has to be written down to be counted. Facebook is an obvious choice but the bar is set low. Twitter is trendy but short on detail. Reddit was the best choice. Their r/paranormal is relatively popular, with an abundance of detailed paranormal reports.
The relevant questions seemed to be: Are (a lot of) people really bothered by paranormal events? If so, why?
Thirty data points across 12 categories were surveyed, including event descriptors, level of fear, frequency of events, interactive/observed, parameters that might be observable and/or repeatable, and more.
STUDY #1 RESULTS
The informal poll of a month's worth of paranormal reports resulted in a queue of 1,003 over 34 days, the complete amount of posts returned at the time of data procurement. Adjusted for seasonal and other factors, that indicates a yearly rate of over 10,000 reports just to that one forum on Reddit.
Analysis of the first 100 reports was compiled into a paper that could be released for peer review.
Highlights:
STUDY MATERIALS
The full paper is available for viewing/download, as are the sources.
FULL PAPER - People Appear Distressed by "Paranormal" Events (pdf 1.35mb)
SPREADSHEETS (much easier to data-mine) - APP_S1_Spreadsheets (from LibreOffice zip 210mb)
SOURCES (source links and PDF of each report) - APP_S1_Sources (zip 210mb)
Extra materials you may find useful: Doc of Tables (pdf 210mb)
This is an extra stand-alone copy of Appendix 1 - All Tables which is handy to have open when reading the paper text.
FEEDBACK
Your feedback is welcome and encouraged. To be useful for the remaining study queue, a sufficient cutoff date will be imposed (TBD).
Reply to this thread or email: feedback@asterpp.org
The base of the The Aster-P Project is its first study, People Appear Distressed by "Paranormal" Events. The name was chosen based on the results of the study. The project's origin is rooted in fandom for both paranormal and skeptical podcasts, although the contradiction is enough to drive a sane person mad. For fans of both science (skepticism) and paranormal, the gnawing question is: What can be done??
Looking to science for the best answer, the idea came up to identify the problem first.
SURVEY METHOD
How to survey the paranormal? National polls just measure "belief." The data has to be written down to be counted. Facebook is an obvious choice but the bar is set low. Twitter is trendy but short on detail. Reddit was the best choice. Their r/paranormal is relatively popular, with an abundance of detailed paranormal reports.
The relevant questions seemed to be: Are (a lot of) people really bothered by paranormal events? If so, why?
Thirty data points across 12 categories were surveyed, including event descriptors, level of fear, frequency of events, interactive/observed, parameters that might be observable and/or repeatable, and more.
STUDY #1 RESULTS
The informal poll of a month's worth of paranormal reports resulted in a queue of 1,003 over 34 days, the complete amount of posts returned at the time of data procurement. Adjusted for seasonal and other factors, that indicates a yearly rate of over 10,000 reports just to that one forum on Reddit.
Analysis of the first 100 reports was compiled into a paper that could be released for peer review.
Highlights:
- Of the first 100 reports, over half (60%) expressed distress.
- Over half (57%) requested assistance with the matter.
- Almost two-thirds (67%) expressed skepticism and agnostic beliefs.
- Almost half (41%) described ongoing events.
- Over a quarter (26%) of the reports were measurable (observable and repeatable).
- Three-quarters of Americans believe in at least one paranormal topic.
STUDY MATERIALS
The full paper is available for viewing/download, as are the sources.
FULL PAPER - People Appear Distressed by "Paranormal" Events (pdf 1.35mb)
SPREADSHEETS (much easier to data-mine) - APP_S1_Spreadsheets (from LibreOffice zip 210mb)
SOURCES (source links and PDF of each report) - APP_S1_Sources (zip 210mb)
Extra materials you may find useful: Doc of Tables (pdf 210mb)
This is an extra stand-alone copy of Appendix 1 - All Tables which is handy to have open when reading the paper text.
FEEDBACK
Your feedback is welcome and encouraged. To be useful for the remaining study queue, a sufficient cutoff date will be imposed (TBD).
Reply to this thread or email: feedback@asterpp.org