Causal illusion has been proposed as a cognitive mediator of pseudoscientific beliefs. However, previous studies have only tested the association between this cognitive bias and a closely related but different type of unwarranted beliefs, those related to superstition and paranormal phenomena. Participants (n = 225) responded to a novel questionnaire of pseudoscientific beliefs designed for this study. They also completed a contingency learning task in which a possible cause, infusion intake, and a desired effect, headache remission, were actually non‐contingent. Volunteers with higher scores on the questionnaire also presented stronger causal illusion effects. These results support the hypothesis that causal illusions might play a fundamental role in the endorsement of pseudoscientific beliefs.

中文翻译：

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因果错觉是伪科学信念的认知基础。

因果错觉已被提出作为伪科学信念的认知媒介。但是，以前的研究仅测试了这种认知偏差和与迷信和超自然现象有关的密切相关但又不同类型的无根据的信念之间的关联。参与者（n  = 225）对本研究设计的新型伪科学信念问卷进行了回应。他们还完成了一项应急性学习任务，其中可能的原因，输注摄入量以及预期的效果（缓解头痛）实际上是非偶然性的。问卷中得分较高的志愿者也表现出更强的因果错觉效果。这些结果支持以下假设：因果错觉可能在假科学信念的认可中起根本作用。