Would You Want to Know If You Were Wrong?

What do you make of an experience you can't explain? A strange light in the sky, a book flying off a desk, a coincidence that feels too improbable to be chance? Social psychologist Barry Markovsky joins Michael Shermer to discuss his new book Everyday Extraordinary and the experiences that have kept him studying paranormal beliefs for decades—including his own childhood UFO sighting and a supposedly haunted vape shop.

Markovsky explains how friends, communities, and our sense of who we are shape what we believe—and why changing someone's mind can take more than better evidence.

Barry Markovsky is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology at University of South Carolina. His articles on ghosts, UFOs, and coincidences appear at TheConversation.com, which disseminates them to major news outlets worldwide. To date, more than a million readers have downloaded them. His new book is Everyday Extraordinary.