Psychologist specializing in paranomal beliefsFor the British judge, see Christopher French (judge). For the Irish theologian, see Christopher French.

Websitewww.gold.ac.uk/psychology/staff/french

Christopher Charles French (born 1956) is a British psychologist specialising in the psychology of paranormal beliefs and experiences, cognition and emotion. He is the head of the University of London's anomalistic Psychology Research Unit and appears regularly in the media as an expert on testing paranormal claims.

Contents

• 1 Career
  • 1.1 Academia
  • 1.2 Science communication
• 2 Works
  • 2.1 Book
  • 2.2 Co-edited book
  • 2.3 Selected book sections
  • 2.4 Selected articles
• 3 References
• 4 External links

Career

After French completed his PhD he taught adult education cl*es in which he also addressed astrology and extrasensory perception.

French is currently Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and is head of their Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit which he founded in 2000.

On the importance of anomalistic psychology he said in an interview on The Skeptic Zone,

Opinion poll after opinion poll tell us that the majority of population, in one way or another, do express belief in the paranormal. Most people, in any survey, will endorse at least one paranormal claim. Now, either that means that paranormal forces really do exist, or it's telling us something really interesting about human psychology. So, either way, we should definitely take these types of claims seriously and try to understand what is going on.

The focus of his current research is the psychology of paranormal beliefs and anomalous experiences. In addition to academic activities, such as conference presentations and invited talks in other departments, he frequently appears on radio and television presenting a sceptical view of paranormal claims. He has been consulted as an expert on a wide range of such claims including psychic abilities, recovered memory, telepathy, faith healing, past life regression, ghosts, UFO abductions, out-of-body experiences, astrology and so on.

Academia

French teaches a course en*led Psychology, Parapsychology and Pseudoscience as part of the BSc (Hons) Psychology programmes at both Goldsmiths College and Birkbeck College. He is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

During his 2014 interview for the Skeptic Zone Podcast, Chris acknowledged that, as a sceptic, he believed in paranormal activities until he became more aware of the psychology behind why people believe, a point made clear to him through a book written by Professor of Psychology James Al*:

I kind of fell into this trap myself...I used to be a believer, a true believer until quite well into my adulthood. And it was reading one particular book by James Al*, called 'Parapsychology: Science or Magic,' that made me realize there was another way of explaining all these unusual experiences, and one that actually made a lot of sense to me!

He has aut*d or co-aut*d over 80 articles and chapters dealing with a wide variety of subjects in psychology, his work has been published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, the British Journal of Psychology and the British Journal of Clinical Psychology.

In August 1996, he organised and chaired an integrated paper session on the topic of The Psychology of Paranormal and Pseudoscientific Beliefs at the XXVI International Congress of Psychology in Montreal.

He also contributed to a symposium on The Psychology of Anomalous Experience at the British Science *ociation annual British Science Festival at the University of Birmingham in September 1996.

In July 1997, he chaired a symposium on The Psychology of Paranormal Belief at the Fifth European Congress of Psychology in Dublin. He presented a paper at a conference on Paranormal and Supers*ious Beliefs: A Skeptical Examination at Manchester Metropolitan University on Friday 13, November, 1998.

In February 1999, he contributed to a symposium of the Royal Statistical Society (which he co-organised). In July 1999, he co-organised and presented a paper at a half-day conference on Parapsychology: Current Status and Future Prospects at Goldsmiths College and gave a paper at the Sixth European Congress of Psychology in Rome. In February 2001, he gave an invited presentation to the Ins*ute for Cultural Research at the Royal Society of Medicine and he has organised two symposia at major conferences (Glasgow, March 2001; London, July 2001).

In 2001, French tested the effects of crystal healing with the results suggesting that they are largely placebo effects. 80 volunteers were given a questionnaire to gauge their level of belief about paranormal phenomena. Later they were given what they were told was a genuine crystal, and asked to meditate for 10 minutes and then report the sensations they experienced. Half of the subjects had actually been given fake plastic crystals instead. French found no difference between the feelings reported between the two groups.

In 2004, French and colleagues conducted an experiment involving electromagnetic fields (EMF) and extremely low frequency sound waves (infrasound) phenomena that have been *ociated with allegedly haunted locations, the experiment did not establish a causal relationship between these phenomena and experiences of the subjects.

A study, led by French and published in 2008, explored the psychology of people who believed they had been abducted by aliens.

In January 2010, French was elected as a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

French, Richard Wiseman and Stuart Ritchie each tried to replicate Daryl Bem's claim about psychic powers independently and failed at publishing their findings in high-profile journals. This is a common problem with publishing negative results, as novel research is more sought-after. They subsequently submitted their paper to PLOS One, an open access journal, of which's concept French became a supporter.

Science communication

French is a former Editor-in-Chief of The Skeptic (UK) magazine. He presided over a relaunch, in 2009, in which the magazine expanded to 40 pages and *embled an editorial advisory board, including many big names (e.g. Tim Minchin, Stephen Fry, Richard Wiseman, Simon Singh). From 2009 to 2016, French has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper exploring scepticism and anomalistic psychology.

He has appeared on various science programmes (e.g. Equinox, ScienceNow, All in the Mind) and do*entaries (e.g. Heart of the Matter, Everyman) as well as numerous discussion programmes (e.g. Esther; The Time, The Place; Kilroy; This Morning).

In 1997, he was one of three sceptics sitting on a panel for a 90-minute live debate on UFOs broadcast at peak viewing time by the Strange but True? team to mark the 50th anniversary of UFOs.

In 1998, he took part in an investigation of reincarnation claims amongst the Druze people of Lebanon, broadcast as part of the To the Ends of the Earth series. This involved spending around three weeks in Lebanon with a film crew.

Chris French at the 2012 World Skeptics Congress in Berlin

He made regular appearances on ITV's programme Haunted Homes. He also makes appearances in the Channel 4 do*entary series Tony Robinson and the Paranormal.

In November 2013, French was featured as the keynote speaker for the 2013 Australian Skeptics National Convention in Canberra.

In 2017, French attended the 17th European Skeptics Congress (ESC) in Old Town Wrocław, Poland. This was organised by the Klub Sceptyków Polskich (Polish Skeptics Club) and Český klub skeptiků Sisyfos (Czech Skeptic's Club). Here he appeared on a panel to discuss exorcisms. The panel was chaired by Amardeo Sarma and included Mariusz Błochowiak, Konrad Szołajski and Jakub Kroulík.

Works

Book

—; Stone, Anna, eds. (2014). Anomalistic Psychology: Exploring Paranormal Belief and Experience. London: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN:9781403995711.

Co-edited book

—; Grossman, Wendy M., eds. (2010). Why Statues Weep. The Best of The Skeptic. London: The Philosophy Press. ISBN:9780953761128.

Selected book sections

— (2004). "Parapsychology". In Kuper, Adam; Kuper, Jessica (eds.). The Social Science Encyclopedia. London: Routledge. pp.:702–703. ISBN:9780415320962.

— (2004). "Skepticism". In Henry, Jane (ed.). Parapsychology. Research on Exceptional Experiences. London: Routledge. pp.:80–89. ISBN:9780415213608.

—; Santomauro, J. (2007). "Something Wicked This Way Comes. Causes and Interpretations of Sleep Paralysis". In Sala, Sergio Della (ed.). Tall Tales About the Mind and Brain. Separating Fact from Fiction. Oxford University Press. pp.:380–398. ISBN:9780198568773.

—; Wilson, Krissy (2007). "Cognitive Factors Underlying Paranormal Beliefs and Experiences". In Sala, Sergio Della (ed.). Tall Tales About the Mind and Brain. Separating Fact from Fiction. Oxford University Press. pp.:3–22. ISBN:9780198568773.

— (2009). "Anomalistic Psychology". In Cardwell, Mike; Clark, Liz; Meldrum, Claire; Wadeley, Alison (eds.). Psychology for A2 Level for AQA (A) (4th:ed.). New York: HarperCollins. pp.:472–505. ISBN:9780007255030.

— (2010). "Reflections of a (Relatively) Moderate Skeptic". In Krippner, Stanley; Friedman, Harris L. (eds.). Debating Psychic Experience: Human Potential Or Human Illusion?. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp.:53–64. ISBN:9780313392610.

— (2010). "Missing the point?". In Krippner, Stanley; Friedman, Harris L. (eds.). Debating Psychic Experience: Human Potential Or Human Illusion?. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp.:149–152. ISBN:9780313392610.

Selected articles

—; Beaumont, J. Graham (March 1984). "A critical review of EEG coherence studies of hemisphere function". International Journal of Psychophysiology. 1 (3): 241–54. doi:10.1016/0167-8760(84)90044-8.

—; Beaumont, J. Graham (November 1987). "The reaction of psychiatric patients to computerized *essment". British Journal of Clinical Psychology. 26 (4): 267–78. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8260.1987.tb01360.x.

Richards, Anne; — (1991). "Effects of encoding and anxiety on implicit and explicit memory performance". Personality and Individual Differences. 12 (2): 131–9. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(91)90096-T.

Richards, Anne; — (1992). "An anxiety-related bias in semantic activation when processing threat/neutral *graphs". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Section A. 45 (3): 503–25. doi:10.1080/02724989208250625.

Richards, Anne; —; Johnson, Wendy; Naparstek, Jennifer; Williams, Jane (November 1992). "Effects of mood manipulation and anxiety on performance of an emotional Stroop task". British Journal of Psychology. 83 (4): 479–91. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1992.tb02454.x.

French, Christopher C.; Richards, Anne; Scholfield, Emma J. C. (November 1996). "Hypomania, anxiety and the emotional Stroop". British Journal of Clinical Psychology. 35 (4): 617–26. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8260.1996.tb01217.x.

Hadwin, Julie; Frost, Susie; —; Richards, Anne (August 1997). "Cognitive processing and trait anxiety in typically developing children: Evidence for an interpretation bias". Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 106 (3): 486–90. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.106.3.486.

Keogh, Edmund; — (March–April 2001). "Test anxiety, evaluative stress, and susceptibility to distraction from threat". European Journal of Personality. 15 (2): 123–41. doi:10.1002/per.400.

Richards, Anne; —; Calder, Andrew J.; Webb, Ben; et:al. (September 2002). "Anxiety-related bias in the cl*ification of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions". Emotion. 2 (3): 273–87. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.2.3.273.

Keogh, Edmund; Bond, Frank W.; —; Richards, Anne; et:al. (2004). "Test anxiety, susceptibility to distraction and examination performance". Anxiety, Stress, & Coping. 17 (3): 241–52. doi:10.1080/10615300410001703472.

References

External links

• Chris French's Goldsmiths Homepage
• Chris French on Twitter
• Student BMJ; Medicine and magic
• Science Weekly: The paranormal, The Guardian, 28 September 2009