ScienceDaily -- The fourth installment of the Paranormal Activity films topped the box office last week. Television channel SyFy's hit show Ghost Hunters scares up big ratings, and has spawned copycat series on networks ranging from Biography to Animal Planet.
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"It wasn't just any story about paranormal investigators that made people believe in ghosts and haunted houses," Brewer said, "it was a story about how they were scientific."
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Still, his findings do offer some solace to skeptics. Another version of the article in the study was identical to the "scientific" version until the end, where an extra paragraph was added. It quoted a professor debunking the investigators' expertise. That article's group was swayed by the opposing viewpoint and rated the investigators' credibility at levels below the first group.
"What the media can do, the media can take away," Brewer said.
MORE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121024141633.htm
