Quality-Checking a Novel ‘Fact Sheet’ on Ghostly Episodes

Brandon Jon Massullo¹James Houran²Alex Escolá Gascón³Ciaran OKeeffe⁴Kenneth Graham Drinkwater⁵Neil Dagnall^5*

• ¹Wooster Community Hospital:, Wooster, OH,, United States
• ²Integrated Knowledge Systems,, Dallas, TX,, United States
• ³Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
• ⁴Buckinghamshire New University, High Wycombe, England, United Kingdom
• ⁵Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom

Apparitions, hauntings, and poltergeists' are universally reported phenomena with significant psychological and social implications. Despite their prevalence, the scientific study of these anomalous experiences remains fragmented, and misinformation is widespread. This preliminary research therefore evaluates a published resource-"Fact Sheet: Ghostly Episodes at a Glance"-that was designed to provide an evidence-based summary of this topic for educational or clinical purposes. We assessed the tool's content validity via an AI-based verification procedure, as well as evaluated its accessibility, utility, and global favorability using groups of informationseekers (i.e., lay percipients vs. lay non-percipients) and information-providers (i.e., clinical practitioners vs. amateur paranormal investigators) on the topic. Results indicated strong content validity, accessibility, usefulness, and global favorability across the four target audiences, though the respondents suggested refinements concerning the tool's readability and contextual information. Statistical analysis also revealed small but significant group differences on global favorability scores, indicating that the information-providers tended to recommend the Fact Sheet more strongly than the information-seekers. The findings highlight the need for cogent, scientifically-grounded resources to help information-seekers and information-providers better understand this often-sensationalized subject. Our study also underscores the broader implications of data-driven public education in addressing anomalous experiences, as well as offers recommendations for refining future iterations of the Fact Sheet to enhance engagement and comprehension across diverse audiences in educational and clinical contexts.