Clark, T. orcid.org/0000-0001-6871-629X, Baker, J.O. orcid.org/0000-0002-8378-1679 and Bader, C.D. orcid.org/0000-0001-8495-1919 (2025) Marginalized, secularized, and popularized? The prevalence and patterns of paranormal belief in the United Kingdom. The Sociological Quarterly. ISSN 0038-0253
Abstract
There is growing recognition of the prevalence of paranormal beliefs in Western countries. However, most of this interest has been focused on the United States and robust, comparative data remain limited. This study extends this literature to report findings from a national survey of the United Kingdom designed to assess the prevalence and patterns of paranormal beliefs. Although there are many similarities to previous research, the results also suggest that there are significant differences in the scope, clustering, and patterns of paranormalism across contexts. The study makes four contributions to research on the paranormal by a) reiterating the continuing popularity of paranormal beliefs, even in highly secularized locations, with over 70% of people in the United Kingdom believing in something paranormal; b) demonstrating that these beliefs are differentiated across contexts where they might otherwise be assumed to be similar; c) demonstrating the applicability of social control and bounded affinity theories for explaining belief in the paranormal; and, d) documenting how conventional religiosity relates to paranormalism in a relatively secular cultural context. These findings highlight the need for further research on diffuse forms of supernaturalism and the potential for such studies to contribute to important questions about theory and research in sociology.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
Keywords: | Paranormal; social control theory; marginalization; religion; secularization |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 08 May 2025 15:54 |
Last Modified: | 08 May 2025 15:54 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/00380253.2025.2461298 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:226127 |