Sheep-Goat Effect
The sheep-goat effect is a term coined by parapsychologist Gertrude Schmeidler in 1942 to describe the tendency for individuals who believe in psi phenomena to score better in ESP and psychokinesis experiments than skeptics.
The sheep-goat effect is a term coined by parapsychologist Gertrude Schmeidler in 1942 to describe the tendency for individuals who believe in psychic phenomena (sheep) to score better in ESP and PK experiments than those who are skeptical (goats).1
Schmeidler, a Harvard-educated experimental psychologist, conducted experiments with psychology students at the City University of New York. Her analysis of the data led her to create this distinction, which has become a well-known concept in Parapsychology. The sheep-goat divide is not only present in the general population but also existed within the U.S. military and intelligence communities, influencing the dynamics of government-sponsored psychic research.1
Sources
- Jacobsen, Annie. Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. ↩
Local network
Sheep-Goat Effect's direct connections. Click any node to navigate, drag to pan, scroll (or pinch) to zoom. + 2‑hop expands the neighborhood one level further.
An interactive diagram of Sheep-Goat Effect's connections, drawn on a canvas and explored with a pointer. The same connections are listed as links in the Connected and Mentioned-in sections below.
Legend — how to read this graph
- People
- Organizations
- Programs
- Events
- Concepts
- Places
Larger = more mentions across the vault.
Explicit link (wikilink between entries).
Inferred connection (name co-mention) — toggle with “Inferred”.
Gold ring — a bridge entity linking distant clusters.
Accent ring — your current selection.