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Subject pairs undertook 100 trials in each of which the sender tried to transmit mentally one of five possible symbols to the receiver in another room. After each trial both members indicated whether they believed a hit had been scored. These hunches or extrasensible beliefs (ESB) were compared across two experimental variations. For half of the pairs (choice and involvement condition) the members chose the symbol set to be used, and the sender shuffled and dealt the symbol deck. Orthogonally, for half of the pairs there was a warm-up period (communicative experience condition) during which members discussed their telepathic technique. It was predicted and strongly confirmed that both of these variations would independently increase ESB. It was also found that senders had higher ESB than receivers. These belief variations were entirely independent of actual telepathic success (ESP), which was no different from chance levels. The results are interpreted within the framework of Langer's illusion of control theory that people behave in chance situations as though in skill situations, to the extent that skill-related cues are situationally present.
Ayeroff et al. (Sun,) studied this question.