Expert: Austin Cline - 2/6/2006

Question
As an agnostic, I am troubled by the sheer number of my rational friends and family of whom have seen ghosts. Do you recognise a scientific explanation for this phenomenon?

Steve

Answer
I don't think that there is "a" scientific explanation for seeing ghosts; instead, there appears to be many reasons why people think they see ghosts. It would be difficult to list all of the factors involved, but a couple of big ones may be:

1. Anthropomorphization: attributing sentience and life to events around us (like seeing faces in clouds and patterns on a door).

2. Poor statistical understanding: failing to realize that chance occurrences happen much more often than we presume, thus obviating the need for supernatural explanations.

3. Excitement: preferring to believe that something amazing happened to us, rather than something mundane.

You might want to consider subscribing to the American magazine Skeptical Inquirer which examines ghost reports along with many other paranormal and supernatural claims.