Belief Change Interventions Are More Effective if the Properties of the Intervention Are Similar to the Properties of an Originating Experience.

Abstract

Experience plays a role in belief development. We present a method to evaluate the experiential basis of a belief and investigate whether belief-change interventions are more effective if the qualities of an intervention experience more closely match the experience that might have led to the belief. Psychology department research pool participants (total N = 1102) were in either a read-only or experience-based intervention for three beliefs: that they can detect stares from unseen others, that pyramids have remarkable powers of preservation, and that pyramids produce concentration benefits for people meditating under them. Stare detection and pyramid effects on concentration were diagnosed as experience-based beliefs and were both more strongly affected by experience-based interventions. Pyramid preservation power did not have the properties of an experience-based belief, and intervention type had no effect on that belief. Potential improvements in evaluating experience and implications for more consequential belief change research are discussed.