Resumen de Factores que influyen sobre sobre las creencias en pseudociencias y fenómenos paranormales en la educación secundaria

Joan Josep Solaz Portolés, Miguel Benito Boillos, Vicente Sanjosé

• The goals of this research focused on the assessment of beliefs in pseudoscience and paranormal phenomena and the impact of trust in science, knowledge about the nature of science, creativity, grade level and gender on them. A quantitative ex post facto cross-sectional research was conducted. A total of 206 students (101 girls and 105 boys) from three different grades of Spanish secondary education (8th, 9th, and 11th grades, between 13 and 17 years old) participated in this study. A questionnaire on beliefs in pseudoscience and paranormal phenomena, a questionnaire on trust in science, a questionnaire on nature of science, and a questionnaire on scientific creativity were administered to participants. Scores obtained and correlation, multiple regression, and mediation analyses suggest that: a) students’ beliefs in pseudoscience and paranormal phenomena were generally quite acceptable, and gender and grade level had a significant effect on them; b) the variable that most influenced the variability of these beliefs was trust in science; and c) grade level played a mediating role between scientific creativity and beliefs in pseudoscience and paranormal phenomena, which showed the indirect effect of scientific creativity on these beliefs (this indirect effect was marginally significant).