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Topic · Social Psychology

Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs

Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs is a research topic within Social Psychology. Science Explorer counts 9.8k research works in it since 1950. 10.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores near-death experiences, paranormal beliefs, consciousness, superstition, spirituality, and their intersection with neuroscience and psychology. It delves into topics such as the incidence, features, and correlates of near-death experiences, the effects of stress and desire for control on superstitious behavior, the role of lunar cycles in human sleep and seizure occurrence, and the psychological implications of end-of-life experiences. The cluster also investigates the relationship between religious beliefs, education, thinking styles, and paranormal phenomena.

  • Near-Death Experiences
  • Paranormal Beliefs
  • Consciousness
  • Superstition
  • Spirituality
  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Transpersonal
  • Intuition
  • Lunar Cycles
Research works
9.8k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+32%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
46% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs

Which countries lead Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (688 and 205 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 688 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 205 works
  3. 3 India 133 works
  4. 4 China 93 works
  5. 5 Germany 83 works
  6. 6 Canada 71 works
  7. 7 Australia 65 works
  8. 8 Russia 60 works
  9. 9 Italy 57 works
  10. 10 France 51 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 45.7%United Kingdom: 13.6%India: 8.8%China: 6.2%6 others listed: 25.7%46%largest
United States688 · 45.7%United Kingdom205 · 13.6%India133 · 8.8%China93 · 6.2%6 others listed387 · 25.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs research?

By volume in 2022-now, Russian Academy of Sciences publishes the most Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs research, followed by University of Oxford and Harvard University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 31 works
  2. 2 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 14 works
  3. 3 Harvard UniversityUnited States 13 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 12 works
  5. 5 Film IndependentUnited States 9 works
  6. 6 University of VirginiaUnited States 9 works
  7. 7 The University of SydneyAustralia 9 works
  8. 8 Bukhara State UniversityUzbekistan 8 works
  9. 9 Universidade Federal de Juiz de ForaBrazil 8 works
  10. 10 ProQuest (United States)United States 8 works

Who are the leading researchers in Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs include Daniel J. Kahneman and Karl John Friston.

  1. 1 Daniel J. Kahneman United States 395k citations
  2. 2 Karl John Friston United Kingdom 310k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs?

The most cited paper in Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs is "The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations." (Theodore M. Newcomb, Fritz Heider, 1958), with 11,956 citations. Next come "Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress." (8,975) and "Trends in Alternative Medicine Use in the United States, 1990-1997" (6,711).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Theodore M. Newcomb, Fritz Heider · American Sociological Review Dec 1958 11,956
2 Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. Stevan E. Hobfoll · American Psychologist 1989 8,975
3 Trends in Alternative Medicine Use in the United States, 1990-1997 David M. Eisenberg, Roger B. Davis, Susan L. Ettner et al. · JAMA 11 Nov 1998 6,711
4 Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion Naomi I. Eisenberger, Matthew D. Lieberman, Kipling D. Williams · Science 10 Oct 2003 3,854
5 Development, Reliability, and Validity of a Dissociation Scale Eve M. Bernstein, Frank W. Putnam · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Dec 1986 3,835
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs research done?

The largest centres of Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Saint Petersburg (Russia) and Los Angeles (United States).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 45 works
  2. 2 New YorkUnited States 35 works
  3. 3 Saint PetersburgRussia 26 works
  4. 4 Los AngelesUnited States 22 works
  5. 5 BeijingChina 18 works
  6. 6 SydneyAustralia 18 works
  7. 7 OxfordUnited Kingdom 18 works
  8. 8 ParisFrance 17 works
  9. 9 TehranIran 16 works
  10. 10 MoscowRussia 15 works
See Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs on the map

Where is the best place to study Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, University of Oxford and University of Virginia score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.4833%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of VirginiaThe University of Sy…Harvard UniversityUniversity of Oxford
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 75.224.7%2.1×13 +13.2%
2University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 70.69.2%5.0×14 +24.1%
3University of VirginiaUnited States 64.134.9%7.4×9 +136.8%
4The University of SydneyAustralia 55.027.0%3.7×9 +65.9%
5Universidade Federal de Juiz de ForaBrazil 34.76.4%16.2×8 +344.4%
6Bukhara State UniversityUzbekistan 15.02.7%62.6×8 -

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs, country by country

Is Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 32% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2026. The fastest-growing topics are Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0069% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs0.010% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs11.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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