Complement Ther Med. 2000 Dec; 8(4): 266-75.

Does experience of the 'occult' predict use of complementary medicine? Experience of, and beliefs about, both complementary medicine and ways of telling the future.

Furnham A.

Department of Psychology, University College, London, UK. ucjtsaf@ucl.ac.uk

This study looked at the relationship between ratings of the perceived effectiveness of 24 methods for telling the future, 39 complementary therapies (CM) and 12 specific attitude statements about science and medicine. A total of 159 participants took part. The results showed that the participants were deeply sceptical of the effectiveness of the methods for telling the future which factored into meaningful and interpretable factors. Participants were much more positive about particular, but not all, specialties of complementary medicine (CM). These also factored into a meaningful factor structure. Finally, the 12 attitude to science/medicine statements revealed four factors: scepticism of medicine; the importance of psychological factors; patient protection; and the importance of scientific evaluation. Regressional analysis showed that belief in the total effectiveness of different ways of predicting the future was best predicted by beliefs in the effectiveness of the CM therapies. Although interest in the occult was associated with interest in CM, participants were able to distinguish between the two, and displayed scepticism about the effectiveness of methods of predicting the future and some CM therapies.Copyright 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.