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Article Excerpt
For well over a hundred years scientists have explored the possible existence of psychic ability (Edge, Morris, Palmer, & Rush, 1986). This work has generated considerable controversy, with proponents arguing that the cumulative research supports the existence of such abilities (see, e.g. Bem & Honorton, 1994; Utts, 1991) and sceptics claiming that the evidence suffers from possible methodological or statistical problems (see, e.g. Alcock, 2003; Hyman, 1994). Researchers on both sides of the debate have tended to collaborate with colleagues who share similar beliefs about the existence of psychic ability. This is unfortunate, as joint sceptic-proponent collaborations offer the potential to help resolve key areas of disagreement (e.g. Hyman & Honorton, 1986). For several years, the second author (a sceptic about the existence of psychic ability) has collaborated with the first author (a proponent of evidence for such abilities) on a systematic programme of joint sceptic-proponent experimental work within parapsychology (Wiseman & Schlitz, 1997, 1999). This research has involved jointly conducted experiments exploring the possible existence of a commonly reported phenomenon, the 'sense of being stared at.' This paper describes our latest joint study.
Surveys suggest that 70 to 90% of the population has experienced an uneasy feeling of being stared at, only to turn around and discover somebody looking at them (Coover, 1913; Braud, Shafer, & Andrews, 1993a). Research into this phenomenon has a long and distinguished history, with initial papers on the topic being published around the turn of the last century by two pioneers of modern day psychology: E.B. Titchener (1898) and J.E. Coover (1913). The first experimental investigation into the phenomenon was conducted by Coover at Stanford University. It involved an experimenter sitting behind participants, either staring directly at their backs or looking away and then asking them to decide whether they had just been stared at. Subsequent work has involved increasingly sophisticated methodological and statistical procedures. For example, researchers have minimized potential experimenter-participant sensory cues by employing one-way mirrors (Peterson, 1978) and closed-circuit television systems (Braud et al., 1993a; Braud, Shafer, & Andrews, 1993b), and created a more sensitive dependent measure of participant's arousal by recording their electrodermal activity (EDA), rather than asking them to report whether they are being stared at (Braud et al., 1993a, 1993b).
The basic experimental procedure that has evolved involves the participant and experimenter being located in two separate, sensorially-isolated rooms. A closed-circuit television system feeds a live image of the participant to a monitor in the experimenter's room and, at randomly determined times, the experimenter either stares at this image with the intention of physiologically arousing the participant ('stare' trials) or looks away from the monitor and disengages his/her intention ('no-stare' trials). The participant's EDA is continuously recorded during the experiment and any significant differential effects observed in EDA between 'stare' and 'no-stare' trials is inferred to reflect the existence of psychic functioning. A recent meta-analytic review of 15 experiments using these types of procedures revealed a small, but statistically significant, overall effect (Schmidt, Schneider, Utts, & Walach, 2004).
The first author (MS) has conducted numerous parapsychological studies that have obtained positive results and has argued in favour of certain types of psychic ability (e.g. Schlitz, 2001; Schlitz & Honorton, 1992). In contrast, the second author (RW) has carried out several studies that have obtained chance results and has published critiques about the adequacy of experimental findings in supporting the existence of psychic abilities (e.g. Milton & Wiseman, 1999; Wiseman & Greening, 2002). In the early 1990s each of us carried out separate studies into the remote detection of staring. The experiments conducted by RW showed no evidence of psychic functioning (Wiseman & Smith, 1994; Wiseman, Smith, Freedman, Wasserman, & Hurst, 1995) whilst MS's study yielded significant results (Schlitz & LaBerge, 1994).
Such 'experimenter effects' are common within parapsychology. Many researchers have argued that it is vitally important to establish why they occur, both in terms of assessing past parapsychological research and attempting to replicate studies in the future (e.g. Palmer, 1989a, 1989b, 1997; Smith, 2003). Indeed, the importance of understanding this issue is such that Palmer (1986) noted:
'... the experimenter effect is the most important challenge facing modern parapsychology. It may be that we will not be able to make too much progress in other areas of the field until the puzzle of the experimenter effect is solved' (pp. 220-221).
The experimenter effects obtained in the remote staring studies individually conducted by MS and RW in the early 1990s are open to several competing interpretations. For...
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