Reexamining Psychokinesis: Commentary on the Bösch, Steinkamp and Boller Meta-Analysis
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Plain English Summary
When a major meta-analysis (a study pooling many experiments) examined 380 studies on psychokinesis — influencing physical systems with your mind — it found a real but messy pattern. This commentary, published in the prestigious Psychological Bulletin by researchers from Princeton and elsewhere, agreed there's a genuine signal but disagreed about what explains the variation. The original analysts assumed effect sizes shouldn't change with sample size, but this team argues that's wrong for PK experiments where motivation and feedback matter enormously. Strikingly, four huge studies contained 320 times more data than all others combined and showed a significant result the 'no effect' model can't explain. The authors also dismantled the claim that hundreds of negative studies hide in file drawers — a survey found only 59 missing studies, far fewer than the 1,544 predicted. They raised a philosophical puzzle too: how do you judge experiment quality when you don't already know the right answer?
Abstract
H. Bo¨sch, F. Steinkamp, and E. Boller's (2006) review of the evidence for psychokinesis confirms many of the authors' earlier findings. The authors agree with Bo¨sch et al. that existing studies provide statistical evidence for psychokinesis, that the evidence is generally of high methodological quality, and that effect sizes are distributed heterogeneously. Bo¨sch et al. postulated the heterogeneity is attributable to selective reporting and thus that psychokinesis is "not proven." However, Bo¨sch et al. assumed that effect size is entirely independent of sample size. For these experiments, this assumption is incorrect; it also guarantees heterogeneity. The authors maintain that selective reporting is an implausible explanation for the observed data and hence that these studies provide evidence for a genuine psychokinetic effect.
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📋 Cite this paper
Radin, D, Nelson, R, Dobyns, Y, Houtkooper, J (2006). Reexamining Psychokinesis: Commentary on the Bösch, Steinkamp and Boller Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.4.529
@article{radin_2006_reexamining,
title = {Reexamining Psychokinesis: Commentary on the Bösch, Steinkamp and Boller Meta-Analysis},
author = {Radin, D and Nelson, R and Dobyns, Y and Houtkooper, J},
year = {2006},
journal = {Psychological Bulletin},
doi = {10.1037/0033-2909.132.4.529},
}