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Social Influence On Paranormal Beliefs

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Everyone has been afraid of someone or something at one point in their lifetime. Having fears as a child is completely normal, but as a child everyone may have learned their fears from those who they have been around. Having fears of the paranormal can be influenced by family, religion, culture, and society.
The first interaction a child has is with their family and because of that they are the first to influence them. Family can sometimes deliberately instill fear as a form of control or to scare children from doing something that they do not want them to do. There was a study done by Argyris and Knowles to determine whether or not fear could be taught to children by information. They did an experiment using children 7–9 years old. Each …show more content…

If someone is having an argument or a debate about whether or not paranormal existence is something that is real, then they would be in a situation where they may second guess their beliefs. Those who do second guess any of their beliefs do so because they were presented with a logical or a persuasive argument. It can be easy to be persuaded by your peers in social situations because many may want to be liked or accepted by them. The same article says, “For mere exposure to be sufficient for paranormal beliefs to spread, a passive social influence process must transpire, a process that is patterned by preexisting social networks and by the consumer demographics for radio and television programs, movies, books, magazines, and newspapers.” Which means that what people see, hear, or watch on TV may cause them to have beliefs of the supernatural. In the more recent years there have been many television shows that revolve around ghosts and proving their existence. The Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures is a show about three men who travel around the world to places that are allegedly haunted. In each episode it shows the group traveling to their destination while they give some background on some unexplainable events that people have experienced. Once they arrive they set up their equipment and give an explanation on each device they will use throughout the episode. A majority of the show focuses on the crew attempting to communicate with any spirits that may be near. The remainder of the time is spent on the crew reviewing footage and audio trying to see if they can hear or see anything that they may have missed while filming. Those who watch shows like Ghost Adventures, My Ghost Story Caught on Camera, or Celebrity Ghost Stories may be more inclined to develop fears of the supernatural due to the content of the shows. At

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