Magical thinking and paranormal beliefs among secondary and university students in South Africa

The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between magical thinking and paranormal beliefs in an African population, and to test whether similar relationships are found as those previously reported in previous studies with American students. The sample included 504 black African students: 260 Grade 11 and 244 first year social science university students. Results indicate that generally university students were greater disbelievers in magical ideation than secondary school students. For the full sample, the Magical Ideation Scale showed significant Pearson correlations with the Paranormal Belief Scale total score (r= 0.50) and with five of the seven Paranormal Belief subscales: Superstition, Witchcraft, extraordinary powers, spiritualism and traditional religious belief. Only precognition and psi beliefs were not significant.