Creative Speculation

The nice thing about science is that if you’re unsure how some aspect of the world works—whether you believe in it or not—you can come up with a way to test your ideas, cut through your initial bias and get a nice, clean answer.

In this vein, researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London set up a blinded study to test whether or not two professional psychics really have the power of sight. (Spoiler: They don’t.)

The two psychics, Patricia Putt and Kim Whitton, were individually sat behind a wall. Five volunteers then sat in turn on the other side of the wall. Putt and Whitton were tasked with writing down characteristics that would describe the volunteers. After all the notes were scrawled, the volunteers had to pick from the pile which list of characteristics best described them—a test of how accurate the psychic’s visions had been. A release from Goldsmiths said:

Upon analysing the results, neither Kim nor Patricia scored more than one hit from the five readings.

Professor French explained: “Kim and Patricia felt they’d have no trouble in passing this test. Despite expressing confidence throughout the experiment, neither were able to gain more than a single correct reading, a result entirely consistent with the operation of chance alone.”