The present study investigated whether suggestion, level of belief in the paranormal, and
proneness to reality testing deficits influenced participants’ expectation of haunt-related phenomena.
Participants watched a short slideshow outlining the history of a fictitious, abandoned hospital. Suggestion
occurred in the final sentence of the presentation narration and stated that the hospital administrative
building had either a history of ghostly activity or structural problems. Following the slideshow,
to ensure participants attended to the suggestion, they read a transcript of the presentation narration.
The experimenter then informed participants that they would see the internal features of the administrative
building via a soundless, black and white video tour. On conclusion of the filmed sequence,
participants completed measures assessing environmental perceptions and phenomena, haunt-related
opinions and feelings, belief in the paranormal (Revised Paranormal Belief Scale), and proneness to reality
testing deficits (Inventory of Personality Organization). Within the experimental phase, only level
of paranormal belief and proneness to reality testing deficits affected haunt-related ratings; suggestion
had no effect. Second phase inquiry, using path analysis, revealed that haunting history (the extent to
which participants believed the administrative building had a history of being haunted) mediated the
relationship between paranormal belief and expectation of haunt-related phenomena