Fantasy role-playing games as an ESP test strategy
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Authors
Auerbach, Loyd M.
Issue Date
1981
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Fantasy games - experiments , Extrasensory perception
Alternative Title
Abstract
This study involved the use of games to increase spontaneity of a subject's response, thereby increasing incidence of psi-hitting. Indications from past research have been that games motivate the subjects more, thus increasing spontaneity. Use of a game created for a specific group of subjects should therefore increase scores even more. The game used was modeled after Dungeons & Dragons, the most popular of fantasy roleplaying games. These games are both motivating and provide for a spontaneous atmosphere of play, and game players are quite familiar with psi concepts. It was predicted that in a standard ESP test, game players would show significant psi-hitting in the game condition, and psi-missing in the test condition.
Forty subjects participated in the study. Game-players and control subjects were assigned to either game or test. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was used as an exploratory measure of personality differences. A 2 X 2 factorial ANOVA was conducted to test the effect of the manipulations, though no significant results were attained. Single-mean t-tests were conducted to test the predictions. Single-mean t-tests on the overall data revealed significant psi-missing by all subjects in the overall mean for all subjects in both conditions (t = -2.333, df = 38) and in the test condition (t = -2.310, df = 18). The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator showed that the introversion-extroversion and thinking-feeling preferences were split between subjects, while a majority of subjects had an intuitive over sensing attitude and a majority had a perceptive over judging attitude.
Results were discussed as well as suggestions presented as to how to upgrade the game for later studies.