Overview

The question of whether certain personality types are more likely to experience or demonstrate psi phenomena has occupied parapsychology since its inception. Roe approached this question with rigorous psychometric methodology, developing and validating instruments to measure personality dimensions and their relationship to both laboratory psi performance and self-reported paranormal experiences. His research program spanned two decades and produced a coherent body of work examining how traits such as extraversion, openness, anxiety, and emotional lability influence psi-related outcomes.

Roe’s approach differed from earlier personality studies in parapsychology by combining multiple personality measures within single studies, examining both task performance and belief simultaneously, and attempting to replicate findings across different samples and methodologies. This systematic approach helped move the field beyond isolated correlations toward a more integrated understanding of personality as a moderator of psi phenomena.

Extraversion and ESP performance

One of Roe’s most direct investigations into personality and psi performance examined the relationship between extraversion and forced-choice ESP task performance. In two separate studies using verbal stimuli, he found that extraversion was negatively associated with ESP accuracy, that is, more introverted participants performed better on the task.¹

This finding has theoretical implications for understanding the psychological conditions that facilitate psi. Introversion is often associated with greater internal focus, reduced distractibility, and sustained attention to subtle stimuli. In the context of laboratory ESP tasks requiring discrimination between similar verbal items, these introverted traits may provide an advantage. The result also suggests that personality-based selection or stratification could improve the efficiency of psi experiments by identifying participants more likely to demonstrate measurable effects.

Roe’s work on extraversion and ESP was complemented by broader investigations into arousal and performance. In collaborative research, he examined how general arousal levels during ESP and psychokinesis (PK) tasks affected outcome measures, using a common protocol across different psi modalities.⁷ These studies suggested that optimal psi performance may require a particular arousal state (neither too high nor too low) and that personality traits influencing baseline arousal could therefore predict task success.

Openness, creativity, and psi belief

Openness to experience, the personality dimension reflecting receptivity to new ideas, imagination, and unconventional thinking, emerged as a consistent predictor of paranormal belief and reported psi experiences in Roe’s research. In a reexamination of nonintentional precognition, he found that openness and creativity were positively associated with precognitive experiences, and that this relationship held even when controlling for critical thinking ability.²

This finding is noteworthy because it suggests that openness and critical thinking operate independently in relation to paranormal phenomena. A person can be both open to unconventional ideas and analytically rigorous; conversely, someone may be closed to new ideas while also being uncritical. Roe’s work demonstrated that openness predicts psi-related experiences and beliefs regardless of whether the person engages in critical evaluation of those experiences.

The relationship between creativity and paranormal belief was also examined in the context of luck beliefs and psi beliefs more broadly.⁸ Roe found that creative individuals were more likely to endorse paranormal beliefs and report psi experiences, a pattern consistent with the theoretical expectation that creativity and openness to experience would cluster together and both relate to receptivity toward anomalous phenomena.

Anxiety, control, and paranormal belief

Roe investigated the hypothesis that paranormal belief might serve a psychological function by providing a sense of control or meaning in the face of uncertainty and anxiety. In a study examining paranormal belief, anxiety, and perceived control over life events, he found that individuals with higher anxiety and lower perceived control were more likely to hold paranormal beliefs.⁴

This pattern suggests that paranormal belief may function as a coping mechanism, offering explanatory frameworks and a sense of agency in situations where conventional understanding feels inadequate. Belief in psi, fate, or spiritual forces could provide psychological comfort by suggesting that events are not random and that hidden forces or abilities might influence outcomes. This functional perspective on paranormal belief complements cognitive and personality-based explanations, highlighting the role of emotional and existential needs in shaping belief systems.

Lability and psychokinetic experiences

Roe developed and validated a new personality construct called lability to capture individual differences in emotional and cognitive instability, fluctuation, and responsiveness to environmental stimuli. In his theoretical work on lability and psychokinetic experiences, he proposed that individuals high in lability, characterized by emotional volatility, cognitive flexibility, and sensitivity to environmental changes, might be more likely to report psychokinetic experiences and hold paranormal beliefs.³

To operationalize this construct, Roe and colleagues developed the Lability Scale using an online survey methodology, allowing for large-sample validation.⁹ The scale was designed to measure fluctuations in mood, attention, and thought processes. Subsequent analyses confirmed that lability was indeed positively associated with reported psychokinetic experiences and paranormal beliefs, suggesting that the emotional and cognitive instability captured by this dimension may predispose individuals toward anomalous experiences or at least toward interpreting ambiguous experiences as anomalous.

Critical thinking and paranormal belief

A recurring theme in Roe’s personality research was the relationship between critical thinking ability and paranormal belief. Contrary to the assumption that critical thinking would simply reduce paranormal belief, Roe found a more nuanced picture. In a reevaluation of critical thinking and paranormal belief, he demonstrated that critical thinking ability did not uniformly suppress paranormal belief; instead, the relationship depended on how critical thinking was measured and what specific paranormal beliefs were examined.¹⁰

This finding challenged a common assumption in both psychology and parapsychology that paranormal belief is primarily a product of poor reasoning or lack of critical analysis. Roe’s work suggested that intelligent, analytically minded individuals could rationally arrive at paranormal beliefs based on their own experiences or on their evaluation of evidence. The relationship between critical thinking and paranormal belief was therefore more complex than a simple inverse correlation, and personality factors such as openness and anxiety appeared to play independent roles.

Social marginality and narcissism

Roe examined whether social marginality (the experience of being outside mainstream social groups or norms) predicted paranormal belief and anomalous experiences. He found that social marginality was associated with stronger paranormal beliefs, a pattern consistent with the hypothesis that individuals who feel disconnected from conventional society may be more drawn to alternative belief systems.⁶

In a separate investigation, Roe explored the relationship between narcissism and paranormal belief. Narcissism (characterized by grandiosity, entitlement, and reduced empathy) might be expected to correlate negatively with paranormal belief if belief were primarily a coping response to anxiety and powerlessness. However, Roe found a significant positive relationship between narcissism and paranormal belief, suggesting that narcissistic individuals may be drawn to paranormal beliefs that enhance their sense of specialness or unique insight.⁵

Roe also examined schizotypy and temporal-lobe signs as personality and neurological correlates of anomalous experiences. In collaboration with colleagues, he found that schizotypy, a personality dimension reflecting magical thinking, perceptual distortions, and ideas of reference, was associated with reported anomalous experiences and paranormal beliefs, though the relationship was moderated by other factors such as gender and specific types of experiences.¹¹

Responses and evaluation

Roe’s personality research in parapsychology has contributed to a more sophisticated understanding of individual differences in psi phenomena. By employing validated psychometric instruments and examining multiple personality dimensions within single studies, his work moved beyond isolated correlations toward a more integrated model of personality and psi. The finding that extraversion predicts lower ESP performance, for example, has practical implications for participant selection in laboratory studies and theoretical implications for understanding the psychological conditions that facilitate psi detection.

The independence of critical thinking and paranormal belief, demonstrated in Roe’s research, has important implications for how parapsychology engages with skepticism and rationality. Rather than assuming that paranormal belief reflects poor reasoning, Roe’s work suggests that belief systems are shaped by multiple factors including personality, experience, and emotional needs, and that analytically sophisticated individuals can arrive at paranormal conclusions through rational evaluation of their own experiences or of evidence they find compelling.

The functional perspective on paranormal belief (as a response to anxiety and perceived lack of control) provides a bridge between personality psychology and parapsychology. This approach does not require that paranormal phenomena be real in order to explain why people believe in them; instead, it examines the psychological conditions that make such beliefs appealing. At the same time, Roe’s work on personality correlates of psi task performance suggests that personality differences may also relate to actual psi ability, not merely to belief or reporting bias.

Roe’s development of the Lability Scale represents a methodological contribution to personality assessment in parapsychology. By creating a new instrument to measure emotional and cognitive instability, he provided researchers with a tool for examining personality dimensions that may be particularly relevant to anomalous experiences. The validation of this scale across large online samples demonstrated the feasibility of conducting personality research in parapsychology using modern survey methodologies.

Overall, Roe’s personality research established that individual differences in traits such as extraversion, openness, anxiety, and emotional lability are systematically related to both psi task performance and paranormal belief. This body of work suggests that personality assessment should be a standard component of parapsychological research, both to improve experimental design through participant stratification and to deepen understanding of the psychological conditions that facilitate or inhibit psi phenomena.