Scattered evidence in the literature suggests that people may believe that non-visible traces of past events (e.g., origins, emotions, and qualities of the owner) persist over time in objects and spaces, even after the original source has been removed. To date, however, there has been no unified treatment to determine the scope and cultural consistency of this expectation. This study had four primary goals: (a) to assess how broadly participants display persistence-of-history beliefs, (b) to explore individual differences in these beliefs, (c) to examine the explanatory frameworks for these beliefs, and (d) to determine whether these beliefs were endorsed across two cultural settings. Adults in both United States (N = 195) and India (N = 173) evaluated a broad range of situations involving possible persistence of history. In both countries, three patterns emerged: (a) A broad range of persistence-of-history scenarios were judged to be possible, falling into two underlying thematic clusters (supernatural vs. non-supernatural); (b) paranormal beliefs predicted endorsement of items in both thematic clusters; and yet (c) most scenarios were explained using natural explanatory frameworks. Together, these results demonstrate broad endorsement of the persistence of history—across cultures, situations, and individuals—as well as substantial individual variation.

中文翻译：

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关于美国和印度历史在物体和空间中持久性的信念

文献中的零散证据表明，人们可能会相信，即使清除了原始来源，过去的事件（例如所有者的起源，情感和品质）的不可见痕迹也会随着时间的流逝而持续存在。但是，迄今为止，还没有统一的方法来确定这种期望的范围和文化一致性。这项研究的四个主要目标是：（a）评估参与者在多大程度上表现出历史持久性信念；（b）探索这些信念中的个体差异；（c）检查这些信念的解释框架；以及（d）确定这些信念是否在两种文化背景下得到认可。美国（N = 195）和印度（N = 173）的成年人评估了广泛的情况，涉及可能的历史持久性。在这两个国家 出现了三种模式：（a）人们认为，可能存在各种各样的历史持久性场景，分为两个潜在的主题群（超自然与非超自然）；（b）超自然信念预测了两个专题组中项目的认可；（c）大多数情况都是使用自然的解释框架进行解释的。总之，这些结果证明了跨文化，境遇和个人的历史的持久性得到了广泛的认可，而且个体差异很大。（c）大多数情况都是使用自然的解释框架进行解释的。总之，这些结果证明了跨文化，境遇和个人的历史的持久性得到了广泛的认可，而且个体差异很大。（c）大多数情况都是使用自然的解释框架进行解释的。总之，这些结果证明了跨文化，境遇和个人的历史的持久性得到了广泛的认可，而且个体差异很大。