Brandon Massullo will be giving the first departmental talk of Spring Semester 2023. Please see abstract below, or attached filer, for more details.

Abstract

This presentation will review the past 20 years of research into anomalous experiences attributed to "haunted houses." We will review the latest research which suggests ghosts and hauntings are interactionalist phenomenon involving environmental (i.e. architectural cues, electromagnetic fields, lighting levels, infrasound, etc), biological (i.e. environmental sensitivity or heightened senses), sociocultural (i.e., beliefs), and psychological (i.e., emotional state, personality traits, etc) factors. The complexity of ghostly encounters suggests that the trigger to experiencing the anomalous may not be as simple as being in 'the right place at the right time' and instead, it might be 'the right person in the right setting.'