University of Oslo, Norway.
University of Roehampton, UK.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2018 Apr;57(2):386-403. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12241. Epub 2018 Feb 20.
Previous research has examined how the talk of mediums attends to the epistemological status of their readings. Such work has identified that mediums frequently use question-framed propositions that are typically confirmed by the sitter, thereby conferring epistemological status on the medium. This study seeks to investigate what happens when the sitter disconfirms the propositions of the medium. The study focuses on the ways in which such disconfirmation can be responded to such that it is reconstrued as evidence of the psychic nature of the medium's reading. Televised demonstrations of psychic readings involving British and US mediums and their sitters are analysed. The results suggest that mediums rework disconfirmation as proof in several ways: first, by emphasizing the different access that sitter and medium have to knowledge (e.g., about the future); second, as evidence that the medium has access to the actual voice of the deceased (and may therefore mishear what the deceased has said to them); and third, as revealing an important truth that has hitherto been concealed from the sitter. The implications of these findings are considered for cases where speakers bring different and potentially competing, epistemological resources to an interaction.
先前的研究考察了灵媒的谈话如何关注其解读的认识论地位。此类研究已经确定，灵媒经常使用问题框架的命题，这些命题通常得到被试的证实，从而赋予灵媒认识论地位。本研究旨在探讨当被试否认灵媒的命题时会发生什么。该研究集中于被试如何回应这种否认，从而将其重新解释为灵媒解读的心理性质的证据。对涉及英国和美国灵媒及其被试的灵媒解读的电视演示进行了分析。结果表明，灵媒以几种方式重新解释否认作为证据：首先，通过强调被试和灵媒对知识的不同获取方式（例如，对未来的知识）；其次，作为灵媒可以访问已故者的实际声音的证据（因此可能听错已故者对他们说的话）；第三，作为揭示迄今为止一直对被试隐瞒的重要真相的证据。考虑到在说话者将不同的、可能相互竞争的认识论资源带到互动中的情况下，这些发现的意义。
