Overview

Kenneth Drinkwater has established himself as a leading researcher in the psychology of paranormal belief and anomalous experience. His work at Manchester Metropolitan University, conducted frequently in collaboration with Neil Dagnall and Andrew Denovan, bridges parapsychology and mainstream cognitive psychology by examining how individual differences in reasoning, personality, and belief-formation processes shape paranormal and related unconventional beliefs. Rather than focusing on the empirical validity of psi phenomena themselves, Drinkwater’s research asks: what psychological characteristics predict who believes in the paranormal, and what cognitive mechanisms underlie those beliefs?

His research program spans multiple domains: the structure and measurement of paranormal belief, the relationship between schizotypy and anomalous-belief endorsement, probabilistic reasoning biases in believers, the ethics of belief formation, conspiracy-theory advocacy, and environmental factors in anomalous experiences. This breadth reflects a systematic effort to understand paranormal belief not as a monolithic phenomenon but as a complex, multidimensional construct shaped by cognitive, personality, and contextual factors.

Life and career

Drinkwater has conducted his research within the Department of Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he became a frequent collaborator with Dagnall and Denovan on studies of paranormal belief and individual differences. His career has been marked by a focus on rigorous psychometric assessment and quantitative analysis of belief structures, moving beyond simple correlational studies to employ advanced statistical techniques such as latent profile analysis, bifactor modeling, and structural equation modeling.

His work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals spanning psychology, parapsychology, and anomalistics, including Frontiers in Psychology, the Journal of Scientific Exploration, and the Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition. This publication record reflects his position as a bridge figure between mainstream psychology and parapsychology, publishing in both disciplinary contexts while maintaining methodological rigor and conceptual clarity.

Research

Paranormal Belief Structure and Measurement

One of Drinkwater’s foundational contributions has been clarifying the structure of paranormal belief through psychometric analysis. In collaboration with Dagnall, Denovan, and Parker, he examined the factorial structure of the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS), the most widely used measure of paranormal belief in parapsychological research. Using an aggregated sample of 3,764 participants, they tested ten competing factorial models and found that a seven-factor bifactor solution provided superior fit.² This model indicates that paranormal belief functions as a single overarching construct (suggesting a general propensity to believe in the paranormal) while simultaneously comprising seven related but conceptually distinct subfactors. The analysis also revealed that women reported significantly higher paranormal belief scores than men, and that this gender difference was unlikely to reflect measurement bias.

Earlier work by Dagnall, Parker, Munley, and Drinkwater explored shared variance across different paranormal-belief measures by combining items from multiple scales into a 124-item composite measure administered to 1,481 respondents.⁸ Exploratory factor analysis identified a nine-factor structure encompassing hauntings, other life, superstition, religious belief, alien visitation, extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, astrology, and witchcraft. This work established that paranormal belief is not a unitary phenomenon but rather a family of related beliefs with distinct psychological correlates.

Schizotypy, Reasoning Bias, and Paranormal Belief

A major strand of Drinkwater’s research examines how schizotypy, a personality dimension characterized by unusual perceptual experiences, magical thinking, and cognitive disorganization, relates to paranormal belief and probabilistic reasoning. In a latent profile analysis of 725 non-clinical adults, Denovan, Dagnall, Drinkwater, and Parker identified four distinct groups based on within-individual variation in schizotypy and paranormal belief.³ Groups with lower paranormal belief (regardless of schizotypy level) performed significantly better on perception-of-randomness tasks, suggesting that paranormal belief itself, rather than schizotypy alone, drives susceptibility to this particular reasoning bias. Framing probabilistic problems in a paranormal context facilitated performance for most groups, indicating that context and belief-congruence shape reasoning outcomes.

In a related study with 254 participants, Dagnall, Denovan, Drinkwater, Parker, and Clough examined relationships between schizotypy, paranormal belief, and statistical bias using structural equation modeling.⁹ The Unusual Experience subscale of the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experience (O-LIFE) correlated positively with paranormal belief, and paranormal belief mediated the indirect relationship between Unusual Experience and statistical bias. Perception of randomness associated more strongly with paranormal belief than conjunction fallacy, and both problem types related similarly to Unusual Experience. When problems were presented in a paranormal context, a framing effect occurred, with Unusual Experience correlating positively with conjunction proneness but not with perception of randomness.

Reality Testing and Anomalous Beliefs

Drinkwater’s work with Dagnall, Denovan, Parker, and Clough has also examined how reality-testing deficits (proneness to misinterpret ambiguous or imaginary perceptions as real) relate to different types of anomalous belief. In a study of 222 volunteers, they compared endorsement of urban legends and paranormal beliefs in relation to reality-testing proneness and schizotypy.⁴ The cognitive-perceptual factor of schizotypy showed the strongest association with paranormal belief, while reality-testing deficits explained more variance in urban-legend endorsement. Partial correlations revealed that the relationship between reality-testing and urban legends remained significant after controlling for the cognitive-perceptual factor, but the association between cognitive-perceptual schizotypy and urban legends became non-significant when reality-testing was controlled. This dissociation suggests that reality-testing and schizotypy operate through distinct psychological pathways in shaping anomalous beliefs.

Ethics of Belief and Evidentialism

In collaboration with Harvey Irwin and Neil Dagnall, Drinkwater examined the extent to which paranormal believers adhere to Evidentialism, the philosophical principle that people should form, amend, and relinquish beliefs wholly in accordance with available evidence.¹ The analysis documented associations between paranormal belief and violations of evidentialist principles, including belief formation as a moral issue, belief inflexibility, belief inconsistency, confirmation bias, and disconfirmation effects. Although effect sizes were typically small, the empirical literature showed a broad lack of sympathy with evidentialist ethics among paranormal believers. The authors explored the possibility that a need for meaning or mastery over life events may underlie believers’ relative subversion of evidentialist ideals.

Conspiracy Theory and Misinformation

Drinkwater’s recent work has extended into the psychology of conspiracy-theory advocacy and misinformation endorsement. In a comprehensive review of psychological research published between 2010 and May 2022, Drinkwater, Dagnall, and Denovan examined relationships between conspiracy-theory advocacy and endorsement of inaccurate material (misinformation, disinformation, and fake news).⁵ The review identified 46 articles, with 87% published between January 2018 and May 2022, reflecting exponential growth in research interest coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic. A major finding was the lack of conceptual clarity in the field: researchers failed to adequately operationalize key terminology and used definitions inconsistently. The review concluded that the field would benefit from standardized operational conceptualizations and taxonomies.

Environmental Factors in Anomalous Experiences

Drinkwater has also contributed to research on environmental correlates of anomalous experiences. In a narrative review of 20 years of environmental research on haunted-house experiences, Dagnall, Drinkwater, O’Keeffe, and colleagues examined six ambient variables: embedded cues, lighting levels, air quality, temperature, infrasound, and electromagnetic fields.⁶ The review found mostly null, inconsistent, or weak relationships between these environmental factors and haunt-type witness reports. The authors recommended that future research address four areas: more consistent measurement of discrete ambient variables, the role of holistic environment-person interactions (Gestalt influences), individual differences in perceptual sensitivity to environmental variables, and the role of attitudinal and normative influences in stimulus interpretation.

Paranormal Tourism and Enchantment

Drinkwater’s work has also examined paranormal tourism and consumer enchantment. In a conceptual review, Drinkwater, Massullo, Dagnall, Laythe, and colleagues analyzed the tourism-hospitality industry’s use of “enchantment” as a marketing concept, particularly in paranormal tourism contexts.¹⁰ They proposed the term “situational-enchantment” to denote a distinct arousal state characterized by dis-ease or dissonance that facilitates a sense of connection with a transcendent agency or ultimate reality. The authors framed this phenomenology within Funder’s Realistic Accuracy Model and identified five competing features: emotional, sensorial, timeless, rational, and transformative. This work bridges parapsychology with experience economy research and consumer psychology.

Imaginary Companions and Entity Encounters

In recent work, Drinkwater has collaborated on research examining imaginary companions (ICs) in childhood and their relationship to entity-encounter experiences. In a study of 389 adults, Lange, Houran, Dagnall, Drinkwater, and Caputo used Rasch analysis to examine the structure of IC phenomenology.⁷ They found that IC experiences form a probabilistic hierarchy ranging from shallow (adaptive or positive) to deep (maladaptive or negative) contents. Network analysis indicated that loneliness was the primary motivator for IC creation. Interestingly, when comparing shallow versus deep IC experiences, positive and negative perceptual contents lost their distinction, distorting measurement in ways that reliably predicted group membership. The authors suggest that ICs comprise a latent dimension that may relate to schizotypal or dissociative phenomena in everyday contexts.

Death Anxiety and Professional Exposure

Drinkwater has also contributed to research on death anxiety and professional exposure to death and dying. In a study of 468 participants across high-exposure professions (mental health, medicine, nursing, mortuary work, end-of-life care, forensics) and non-exposure professions, Curtis, Dagnall, Drinkwater, and Denovan developed the Exposure to Death and Dying Scale (ED&DS).¹¹ One-way ANOVA revealed that exposure professionals had lower death anxiety than non-exposure professionals. However, high-exposure occupations varied in death anxiety levels, with mental health professionals showing the highest mean (111.52) and end-of-life carers the lowest (93.89). Although there was a trend toward declining death anxiety with increasing tenure, individuals with the longest tenure showed increased anxiety, suggesting a non-linear relationship.

Influence and reception

Drinkwater’s research has established him as a central figure in contemporary parapsychology and anomalistics research. His work is regularly cited in the parapsychological literature and has helped shape how researchers conceptualize and measure paranormal belief. His bifactor analysis of the RPBS has become influential in establishing that paranormal belief, while multidimensional, functions as a coherent overarching construct, a finding that has implications for how researchers design studies and interpret results involving paranormal-belief measures.

His collaborative work with Dagnall and Denovan at Manchester Metropolitan University has established that institution as a significant center for research on paranormal belief and individual differences. The Manchester group’s systematic approach to psychometric validation, latent-profile analysis, and structural equation modeling has set methodological standards for the field. By publishing in both parapsychology-specific venues (Journal of Scientific Exploration) and mainstream psychology journals (Frontiers in Psychology), Drinkwater has helped bridge the disciplinary divide and bring parapsychological research into conversation with cognitive and personality psychology.

His recent work on conspiracy-theory advocacy and misinformation reflects the field’s evolution toward understanding paranormal and related unconventional beliefs within broader contexts of belief formation, reasoning bias, and information processing. By documenting the lack of conceptual clarity in conspiracy-theory research, he has contributed to calls for standardization and rigor in an emerging research domain.

Drinkwater’s research has also demonstrated that paranormal belief is not a simple marker of irrationality or pathology, but rather a complex phenomenon shaped by multiple psychological factors, some of which (such as schizotypy) have independent effects, while others (such as reality-testing deficits) operate through distinct pathways. This nuanced understanding has helped move the field beyond simplistic characterizations of believers and toward more sophisticated models of belief formation and maintenance.