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Plain English Summary
This landmark study, published in the respected physics journal Foundations of Physics, asked a deceptively simple question: can people influence random number generators (basically electronic coin-flippers) just by thinking at them? The researchers gathered a massive haul of 832 experiments spanning nearly three decades and 68 different investigators. The result? A tiny but stubbornly consistent effect that just wouldn't go away -- not when you weighted for study quality, not when you checked for cherry-picking. To explain this away by missing studies alone, you'd need over 54,000 unreported experiments hiding in file drawers, roughly 90 times the known database. The quality-rating system they built became the gold standard for every mind-over-matter meta-analysis that followed.
Research Notes
Foundational RNG/PK meta-analysis published in a mainstream physics journal. Established the 16-criterion quality assessment template used by all subsequent PK meta-analyses. Key finding: quality-weighted mean effect size 3.18e-4, small but robust across 68 independent investigators with failsafe N = 54,000.
Comprehensive meta-analysis of 832 experiments (597 experimental, 235 control) by 68 investigators testing whether human conscious intention correlates with the statistical output of electronic random number generators (1959-1987). Effect size (e = Z/sqrt(N)) was assessed using a 16-criterion quality rating system (inter-rater r=0.802). Control conditions conformed to chance; experimental conditions showed significant non-chance effects robust across unweighted, quality-weighted, and homogeneous analyses. No significant quality-effect size relationship was found. Filedrawer analysis estimated ~800 total studies exist with ~75% reported; the failsafe N of 54,000 is 90x the reported database. Published in Foundations of Physics.
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📋 Cite this paper
Radin, Dean I, Nelson, Roger D (1989). Evidence for Consciousness-Related Anomalies in Random Physical Systems. Foundations of Physics. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00732509
@article{radin_1989_evidence,
title = {Evidence for Consciousness-Related Anomalies in Random Physical Systems},
author = {Radin, Dean I and Nelson, Roger D},
year = {1989},
journal = {Foundations of Physics},
doi = {10.1007/BF00732509},
}