Your Gender May Affect How You Think About the Paranormal

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Belief in the paranormal is widespread and common. This includes belief in a range of unusual phenomena that neither mainstream science nor religious institutions endorse, like the existence of Bigfoot or psychic powers (Bader et al., 2017). For many years, researchers have shown that gender correlates strongly with whether an individual is likely to be a believer or not. In general, this body of work shows that women are more likely to believe than men. Unfortunately, a more detailed picture is not quite that simple. For one thing, the exact relationship varies depending on what specific type of phenomenon we’re talking about, for instance ghosts or aliens. Also, different studies find different patterns, which further complicates things.

It’s not completely clear why there should be a gender difference in paranormal belief in the first place. Different theories abound and the inconsistencies in the research add to the lack of clarity. However, a new study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (Silva 2023) might hold some answers by taking a fresh approach to the problem. The study’s author—Tony Silva of the University of British Columbia—notes that gender is more complicated than a simple male/female binary. While plenty of previous research has examined how gender identity corresponds with paranormal beliefs, the same cannot be said for gender expression.

The Complexities of Gender

Gender identity is someone’s internal sense of who they are, such as a woman, a man, or nonbinary (Garbarski 2023). On the other hand, gender expression is the external presentation of gender through things like mannerisms or clothing choices. It can better be expressed with terms like "masculine" or "feminine." The two concepts tend to correlate, but they don’t have to for any given person. For example, you might identify as a feminine woman, a more masculine one, or perhaps somewhere in between.

It is possible that gender expression could have more to do with whether someone believes in the paranormal than gender identity does. This could be because gender often corresponds to so many other important factors, like religiosity and social expectations. The partial but incomplete overlap between the two might account for some of the inconsistent findings in previous research, since these usually focus on identity alone without measuring variations in expression.

To test this possibility, the author examined the results of a survey administered to a sample of 2,504 Canadians. These individuals were recruited from a larger pool of potential subjects through a stratified random sample. The survey included numerous questions on a range of topics. Most importantly for the question at hand, these included questions about their gender identity, gender expression, and belief in different paranormal phenomena: Bigfoot, aliens visiting the Earth, ghosts, the ability to see the future, and telekinesis. This allowed for a statistical analysis of possible patterns between these items.

Unraveling the Mysteries of Belief

One thing the results underline is the possibility that not all paranormal beliefs are the same. Gender identity did not make a difference when it came to whether people who identify as cis men, cis women, nonbinary, or transgender believe in the existence of Bigfoot or the claim that extraterrestrials are visiting our planet. Factoring in gender expression did not change the results.

This is consistent with findings the author and a colleague identified in a previous study using an American sample (Silva and Woody, 2022). However, it runs counter to some previous research, which has found significant differences along these lines (e.g. Bader et al., 2017). Like other discrepancies in this area of research, the reason for the different findings is unclear. The author suggests this could reflect social change since the time the earlier work was completed.

If they were real, Bigfoot and extraterrestrials represent fairly tangible things. In theory, you could easily see, touch, and measure them. This isn’t necessarily true for other paranormal phenomena included in the study: ghosts, seeing the future, and telekinesis. Silva calls these "nonmaterial" phenomena. Initial results indicated that cis women were more likely than cis men to believe in all three of these nonmaterial ideas. Transgender and nonbinary respondents showed higher levels of belief in ghosts than men too, but showed no difference for the other two phenomena. However, when the researchers factored femininity into the model, these outcomes changed.

The difference between cis men and both transgender and nonbinary respondents disappeared. Cis women were still more likely to believe in ghosts, but the difference in belief in telekinesis disappeared as well. Finally, the difference in belief in telling the future dropped for gender identity, but became significant for gender expression. These results are more complicated than those the study found for material phenomena (Bigfoot and aliens). They begin to show the importance of gender identity and gender expression when it comes to understanding belief, the need to include both concepts in research, and the complexity they can present.

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Perhaps the most compelling finding in the study had to do with gender nonconformity. This refers to people who identify as men, but who express their gender in a feminine way or women who express themselves in a more masculine way. The analysis revealed that nonconformists were more likely to believe in all five paranormal phenomena compared to people whose gender expression was more traditionally reflective of their identity.

This raises fascinating questions about the role of identity and social expectations when it comes to belief. The author proposes some possible explanations for the pattern. For instance, it could be that nonconformists are more willing to entertain unusual ideas given their already unconventional status. Conversely, maybe they are simply more willing to honestly admit belief in unconventional ideas on a survey than people committed to identities that are more conventional.

Further research is needed to unravel some of the mysteries of gender and paranormal belief. This research adds to the developing picture, though. Belief can occur for many reasons. When it comes to gender, however, it may have more to do with how someone’s gender expression matches up with social expectations than with identity per se. If so, as some societies become less restrictive with their gender expectations, we could expect to see changes across a wide range of beliefs and practices as seemingly unrelated to gender as paranormal beliefs.