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Ontological confusion reconsidered: Introducing the new Ontological Confusion Scale
Applied Cognitive Psychology. 2025. Vol. 39. No. 6. Article e70150.
Ontological confusion refers to a cognitive error involving the misclassification of entities across distinct ontological domains—physical, biological, mental, and moral. While previous research links it to paranormal and pseudoscientific beliefs, existing measures—most notably the Core Knowledge Confusions (CKC) scale—suffer from conceptual ambiguity and cultural limitations. This paper introduces the Ontological Confusion Scale (OCS), designed to address these issues by evaluating seven types of ontological misclassification. Across two studies (N = 354 and N = 550), OCS demonstrates a robust unidimensional structure, high internal consistency, and strong convergent and discriminant validity. The scale predicts a range of unfounded beliefs, while outperforming CKC and belief in a just world in explaining unique variance. These findings support a broader view of ontological confusion as a general cognitive tendency underlying intuitive but erroneous reasoning across domains. OCS provides a reliable, culturally adaptable tool for research on belief formation and epistemic vulnerability.
Карпова А. Д., Tarasov S., Kanonire T., Психологическая наука и образование 2026 Т. 31 № 4 С. 51–70
Context and relevance. In recent years, academic stress among high school students has been regarded as a significant risk factor for their well-being and academic achievement, while in the Russian context there is a noted shortage of modern, psychometrically validated methods for its assessment . Objective. The aim of this study is to validate the ...
Added: September 7, 2026
Очеретяный К. А., Галактика медиа: журнал медиа исследований 2026 Т. 7 № 2 С. 85–102
We use interfaces to disconnect from the situation around us, from the persistent experience of the outside world, from our neighbors. It is this ability of interfaces to legitimize “absence” that is usually overlooked in their analysis, as the emphasis is on concentration, management, and control. In reality, interfaces are not so much pragmatic and ...
Added: September 7, 2026
Момджян К. Х., Кржевов В. С., Poddiakov A. et al., М.: Новые печатные технологии, 2025.
При всей кажущейся ясности и недвусмысленности понятия «свобода» дать ему исчерпывающую научную дефиницию весьма затруднительно. У каждой отрасли знания свой подход к трактовке этого многоаспектного понятия. В ходе обсуждения, материалы которого вошли в настоящий сборник, свобода рассматривается с позиций философии, социологии, юриспруденции, психологии, нейрофизиологии и т.д.
Участники дискуссии рассуждают о границах свободы воли и субъектности человека, о соотношении свободы и ...
Added: September 6, 2026
Liaukovich K., Panfilova E., Khayrullina G. et al., International Journal of Psychophysiology 2025 Vol. 207 P. 112475
Added: September 5, 2026
Liaukovich K., Bainbridge E., Khayrullina G. et al., Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology 2026 Vol. 56 P. 10–19
Added: September 5, 2026
Vervoort L., Springer, 2026.
This open access book provides a method for philosophical problem solving, offering philosophers the tools to stay ahead of machine intelligence. Louis Vervoort argues that, with ultra-intelligent AI knocking at the door, philosophy can no longer rely solely on its ancient methodological toolkit. The proposed method is essentially the same as used in natural science, ...
Added: September 5, 2026
Shchebetenko S., De Marchis G., / Series PsyArXiv "PsyArXiv". 2026.
Personality questionnaires do not directly record recurring conduct. Rather, they elicit
task-bounded reports of personality attributions: how respondents characterise themselves
using personality-descriptive content. From this perspective, established associations between
self-esteem and self-reported personality may depend on the evaluative meaning attached to
that content. We tested whether attitudes toward the Big Five traits moderated associations
between self-esteem and corresponding personality reports ...
Added: September 4, 2026
Потехина И. П., Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Серия 2. История 2026 Т. 71 № 2 С. 525–533
The review is dedicated to the fourth volume of the “History of the Roman Popes” (2024), which represents a continuation of the long-term scholarly project lead by the philosopher and historian Vitaly L. Zadvorny. The volume itself is dedicated to the popes of the 11th - early 13th centuries and generally continues the traditions laid down in ...
Added: September 3, 2026
Pavlova A., Малых С. Б., Адамович Т. В., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2026 No. 20 Article 1843779
This study aimed to investigate resting-state neural correlates of math anxiety in high school students using a graph-theoretical approach. Sixty 10th-grade students (35 females; mean age = 16.15 years) participated in the study. Resting-state EEG data were acquired using a 32-channel wireless dry-sensor system (Cognionics Quick-32 series). Math anxiety was assessed using the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale. Mean ...
Added: September 3, 2026
Ермоленко Г. А., Кожевников С. Б., М.: Эксмо, 2026.
Socio‑humanitarian knowledge helps to master the social norms and values of Russian civilization. Each module of social studies is linked to a specific sphere of human social life, to activities aimed at fulfilling a person’s spiritual needs and social interests. Recognizing the social nature of one’s own needs is an important step towards understanding oneself, ...
Added: August 31, 2026
Gromov V., Переслегин С. Б., Переслегина Е. Б. et al., СПб.: Полакс, 2026.
Механизм происходящих в мире изменений носит эволюционный, а не экологический характер. Иначе говоря, Человечество столкнулось с кризисом развития, который имеет три независимые составляющие: кризис индустриального общества (фазовый кризис), кризис научного мышления (эпистемный кризис) и кризис формата существования разума (социосистемный кризис). Доклад посвящён аспектам этого триединого кризиса и возможным путям его преодоления, не сводящимся к первичному ...
Added: August 31, 2026
Очеретяный К. А., Вопросы философии 2026 № 3 С. 48–59
The spheres of the miraculous and monstrous are older than science, and perhaps even older than conceptual language. They belong to the reality of metaphors, or even deep emotions, therefore, in relation to science, their use, at first glance, seems evaluative and superfluous, because they do not refer to specific objects, labels and categories, but ...
Added: August 30, 2026
Очеретяный К. А., Эпистемология и философия науки 2026 Т. 2 № 63 С. 70–73
AI literally comes to us from the future, not because it exists in some distant temporal reality, but because we, by attempting to construct an expected future through the experiences and affections evoked in us by the idea of AI, are unwittingly creating the conditions for the future's sudden arrival. No matter how much we ...
Added: August 30, 2026
Очеретяный К. А., Эпистемология и философия науки 2026 Т. 63 № 2 С. 21–32
The digital today constitutes an environment of affects: it touches, enchants, captivates, incites, and frightens. What it does not do, however, is provide knowledge; rather, it takes knowledge away. Previously, the subject of cognition was the human being, though cognition itself was largely grounded in institutions, social contacts, performative rituals, and the activity of human-scale ...
Added: August 30, 2026
Очеретяный К. А., Вопросы философии 2026 № 2 С. 42–52
Nature as an image defines scientific, artistic, and technical discourse - various philosophical programs postulated overcoming nature, transforming nature, and reconciling with nature; today, all this diversity of discourses combines graphical and technical interfaces that constitute the experience of digital reality and increasingly identify it with the world of life. What was once sought in ...
Added: August 30, 2026
Gallyamova A., Komyaginskaya E., Grigoryev D., Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 2026 Vol. 67 No. 4 P. 1119–1141
Introduction: This study tests the dimensionality hypothesis, according to which diverse epistemically unfounded beliefs share a single underlying liability in addition to domain-specific components. We focus on conspiracy, paranormal, pseudoscientific, religious, and pseudo-profound (“bullshit”) beliefs and examine whether their covariance structure is best captured by a common factor plus residual domain-specific factors.
Methods: Using a nationally representative Russian ...
Added: March 16, 2026
Микляева А. В., Samoilov O., Социальная психология и общество 2024 Т. 15 № 4 С. 154–171
Objective. The analysis of social beliefs and the foundations for moral choice as predictors of the civic identity of adolescents. Background. Despite the expressed interest of researchers in the patterns of formation of civic identity in adolescence, at this stage there is no unambiguous data on the influence of social beliefs and foundations for moral ...
Added: February 4, 2026
Toribio-Florez D., Altenmüller M., Douglas K. et al., European Journal of Social Psychology 2025 Vol. 55 No. 7 P. 1252–1269
Conspiracy beliefs have been linked to perceptions of collective victimhood. We adopt an individual perspective on victimhood by investigating the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and the individual disposition to perceive and react to injustice as a victim (i.e., victim justice sensitivity; VJS). Data from two German samples (Ns = 370,373) indicated a positive association between ...
Added: June 23, 2025
Maksimenko A., Загладина А. Р., Дейнека О. С., Психология и право 2025 Т. 15 № 3 С. 224–239
Context and relevance. In the context of the persistent spread of corrupt practices, which pose a threat both to the functioning of state institutions and to public trust, there is an increasing need to analyze not only institutional, legal, and economic, but also psychological factors that contribute to their reproduction. In recent years, growing attention in ...
Added: October 2, 2024
Gallyamova A., Komyaginskaya E., Grigoryev D., Personality and Individual Differences 2024 Vol. 230 Article 112780
This meta-analysis examines the relationship between paranormal beliefs and Core Knowledge Confusions (CKC), a concept introduced by Lindeman and Aarnio (2007) to explore the link between ontological errors and belief in the paranormal. The CKC, which uses metaphor classification to assess ontological confusion, suggests that cognitive processes organize information into ontologies, and our interpretation of ...
Added: June 24, 2024
Grigoryev D., Gallyamova A., The Spanish Journal of Psychology 2023 Vol. 26 P. 1–14
Even though wide access to any warranted information in the modern age, the problem of unfounded belief is still relevant, since these beliefs often lead to negative consequences (e.g., vaccination refusal, homeopathic treatment, etc.). The aim of this study was testing the relationship of social worldviews with paranormal beliefs and conspiracy beliefs. We assumed dimensionality ...
Added: April 18, 2023
Vereshchagina N., Вестник Пермского национального исследовательского политехнического университета. Культура, история, философия, право 2018 № 1 С. 11–18
The article covers the methods of making extraterrestrial images. The image of an alien was formed in the XIX century which is proved by the evolution of Sci-Fi stories, references to the contacts with the forms of alien life in media and the first scientific projects of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (Johann C.F. Gauss, Joseph ...
Added: September 21, 2022
Kiral Ucar G., Donat M., Bartholomaeus J. et al., Current Psychology 2022 Vol. 41 P. 8400–8409
The purpose of this study was to understand the complex relationships between belief in a just world (BJW), perceived control, perceived risk to self and others, and hopelessness among a globally diverse sample during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The just-world hypothesis suggests that people need to believe in a just world in ...
Added: April 29, 2022
Nartova-Bochaver S. K., Donat M., Rüprich C., Frontiers in Psychology 2019 Vol. 10 P. 1739-1–1739-12
In a cross-sectional study with N = 627 individuals (Mage = 22.8, SDage = 7.3, 147 males, 480 females, 106 non-religious, 456 religious), we investigated personal belief in a just world (BJW) as a resource for undergraduates’ subjective well-being and expected a positive relation between both constructs due to recent studies. We not only aimed at replicating but also extending ...
Added: July 12, 2019