What does science say about the Ouija board?

The Ouija is one of the great icons of spiritism. The idea that we can communicate with disembodied and supernatural beings has seduced many people since this wooden board with letters and response options was created in the 19th century.

The idea is simple: a board on which are written all the letters of the alphabet, the numbers from 0 to 9 and basic options such as "yes", "no", "hello" and "bye". To use the Ouija board, participants place their fingers on a plate or glass that they place on the board, formulate ask questions and see how the object slides over the letters and numbers offering answers as if it came to life own.

But the Ouija does not work

Unsurprisingly, Ouija sessions cannot be explained by attributing the movement of the token or glass to forces from beyond. It is not only that it does not make sense to believe it, it is that it can be demonstrated through a simple experience that Professor Larry Barrieau is responsible for periodically taking with his students.

In these sessions, first, the teacher asks his students to say to what extent they believe in spiritism. Then, he chooses the most believing and convinced people that the Ouija works and asks them to choose a board that they think works to contact the spirits. Once the students have chosen, the Ouija session begins, and they are promised that if the movement of the token indicates the correct answers to the questions that will be asked, the whole class will have a grade of Excellent. But with a small change: the students have to hold a piece of cardboard under their chin, so that they cannot see the letters or numbers on the board.

In all the experiences Larry has led, the answers never make sense., basically because the students cannot see anything that happens on the board. However, the wooden token does move without the students having a sense of control. What is this about?

The ideomotor effect

Of course, there are people who believe that its operation is based on a real capacity to contact the afterlife, but if we discard this possibility and We focus on the scientific explanation that explains the existence of people who believe in the effectiveness of the Ouija after having experimented with it, what remains? Next we will see the psychological phenomenon that allows to understand why the Ouija seems to be connected with spirits. His name is ideomotor effect.

This is a concept that serves to describe the phenomenon by which certain suggested people move parts of their body involuntarily, making these movements have a logical connection with beliefs, desires or ideas what they express themselves unconsciously. Therefore, the idea of ​​mental processes that are outside the reach of our consciousness plays a very important role in understanding how this type of suggestion can appear.

An experimental example

The ideomotor effect theory has been observed in several experiments carried out in a laboratory environment.

In one of these experiences, a series of volunteers were chosen and asked to answer a series of questions through a computer, selecting the options "yes" or "no". Afterwards, they were asked to do something similar, but using a Ouija board instead of a computer program. On this occasion, in addition, a companion would put his finger on the wooden plate at the same time as them, but they had to answer blindfolded. But this investigation contained a surprise: as soon as the eyes had been blindfolded, the person accompanying the volunteer in the session of Ouija board was removed from the table, leaving only one finger resting on the wooden token that, however, was moved.

The results showed that the participants were very surprised to learn that no one had accompanied them to the Ouija session., since many times they believed that the other person would be in league with the investigators and would be in charge of moving the token. In addition, questions whose answers were not known for sure were correct 65% of the time. Somehow, the fact that they unconsciously believed in one answer more than the other and did not rule out the possibility that the spirits manifested through the Ouija board to give an answer for them caused them, without realizing it, to give an answer themselves.

Concluding

In science, given the same conditions, the simplest hypothesis always wins. And, in the case of the Ouija, the ideomotor effect is a much more useful idea than the existence of spirits that manifest themselves through a board game.

In addition, the possibility of experimenting with the ideomotor effect is a good way to better study the functioning of the human unconscious, a very promising field of research in the field of psychology.