Implicit Philosophies of Mind: The Dualism Scale and Its Relation to Religiosity and Belief in Extrasensory Perception

ABSTRACT

Althought the mind/body problem has been vigorously debated for decades by philosophers, virtually nothing is known about the implicit theories of mind held by people who are not specialists on the subject. In this study, a scale was developed that assessed the extent to which respondents endorsed dualistic theories of mind and rejected materialistic accounts. The Dualism Scale revealed that, to a surprising degree, a sample of American undergraduates held dualistic theories of mind that are at variance with contemporary neurophysiology, psychology, and philosophy. Scores on the Dualism Scale were not correlated with responses on a questionnaire assessing religiosity but were correlated with scores on a scale assessing belief in extrasensory perception. Religiosity, however, moderated this relationship. The connection between belief in extrasensory perception and dualistic theories of mind was stronger among subjects lower in religiosity.