The Relationship Between Paranormal Beliefs, Personality, Creativity, and Death Anxiety: An Interfaculty Comparison

This study aimed to evaluate the levels of paranormal beliefs among university students in relation to personality traits, death anxiety, and creativity, and to examine how these beliefs differ between students from different academic disciplines, namely Medicine and Theology. A total of 200 students aged 18–30 years (100 from the Faculty of Medicine and 100 from the Faculty of Theology) at Erciyes University were included. Participants completed the Paranormal Belief Scale, the short form of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Controlled Word Association Test, and the Death Anxiety Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 through group comparisons and correlation analyses. The findings revealed that medical students had significantly higher paranormal belief scores than theology students (p < 0.001). Among medical students, both age and year of study were positively associated with higher levels of paranormal beliefs, while theology students achieved higher scores on the verbal association test. A positive correlation was also observed between death anxiety and both neuroticism and psychoticism. Overall, the results indicate that paranormal beliefs are closely associated with individuals’ education, personality traits, and cognitive processes. The educational content offered by different academic disciplines may shape students’ approaches toward irrational beliefs. Future research with larger and more diverse samples is needed to further elucidate these relationships.