psi-missing - The Skeptic's Dictionary (original) (raw)

Psi-missing is an ad hoc hypothesis invented by parapsychologists to explain away failures to demonstrate ESP.The tests usually involve trying to use ESP to identify various targets, such as Zener cards,pictures, etc. which are hidden from direct view of the subject. The failure to do better than would be expected by chance is explained away as due to unconscious direction to avoid the target. J. B. Rhine even claimed that persons who didn't like him would consciously guess wrong to spite him (Park 2000, 42).

See also curse-missing, displacement, parapsychology, and psi.

further reading

Park, Robert L. Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud (Oxford U. Press, 2000).

Last updated 27-Oct-2015