Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect.
Abstract
The term psi denotes anomalous processes of information or energy transfer that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms. Two variants of psi are precognition (conscious cognitive awareness) and premonition (affective apprehension) of a future event that could not otherwise be anticipated through any known inferential process. Precognition and premonition are themselves special cases of a more general phenomenon: the anomalous retroactive influence of some future event on an individual's current responses, whether those responses are conscious or nonconscious, cognitive or affective. This article reports 9 experiments, involving more than 1,000 participants, that test for retroactive influence by "time-reversing" well-established psychological effects so that the individual's responses are obtained before the putatively causal stimulus events occur. Data are presented for 4 time-reversed effects: precognitive approach to erotic stimuli and precognitive avoidance of negative stimuli; retroactive priming; retroactive habituation; and retroactive facilitation of recall. The mean effect size (d) in psi performance across all 9 experiments was 0.22, and all but one of the experiments yielded statistically significant results. The individual-difference variable of stimulus seeking, a component of extraversion, was significantly correlated with psi performance in 5 of the experiments, with participants who scored above the midpoint on a scale of stimulus seeking achieving a mean effect size of 0.43. Skepticism about psi, issues of replication, and theories of psi are also discussed.
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- Authors
- Bem, D. J.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bem, Daryl J.
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2011
- Volume
- 100
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 407-425
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2118699776
- Cited by
- 893
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 54 · 2022: 88 · 2021: 88 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 58 · 2018: 94 · 2017: 68 · 2016: 46 · 2015: 47 · 2014: 61 · 2013: 50 · 2012: 48
- FWCI
- 83.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- extrasensory perception, precognition, premonition, stimulus seeking, extraversion, individual differences, replication
- MeSH terms
- Affect, Awareness, Boredom, Cognition, Erotica, Escape Reaction, Female, Habituation, Psychophysiologic, Humans, Male, Parapsychology, Mental Recall, Subliminal Stimulation, Time Factors
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