Effects of Consciousness on the Fall of Dice: A Meta-Analysis
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Plain English Summary
Can you move a rolling die with your mind? This meta-analysis (a study pooling results from many studies) examined over 50 years of dice-throwing experiments. With 148 studies, 2,569 participants, and over 2.5 million tosses, initial numbers looked stunning — 19 standard deviations from chance. But here's the catch: regular dice are slightly heavier on certain sides, naturally biasing which face lands up. Once researchers filtered for experiments controlling this physical quirk, the effect shrank dramatically. The remaining 59 careful studies still showed statistical significance, but the authors honestly called it only "weak cumulative evidence" for mind-over-matter. Older studies also showed signs of selective reporting, where failed experiments may never have been published. A refreshingly candid conclusion for a provocative topic.
Research Notes
The definitive meta-analysis of the classic dice-throwing PK literature spanning 50+ years. Notable for careful treatment of physical dice bias artifacts that dramatically reduced the apparent effect from 19 SE to 2.6 SE. The honest "weak cumulative evidence" conclusion contrasts with the initially dramatic statistics. Central to Controversy #8 and the broader PK debate.
Meta-analysis of 148 dice-throwing PK experiments (1935–1987) by 52 investigators, involving 2,569 subjects and over 2.59 million dice tosses. The full database showed an effect 19 SE from chance (ē = 0.01220), but a physical dice bias artifact was identified: higher die faces show inflated hit rates due to mass asymmetry. A subset of 59 homogeneous studies using balanced protocols (controlling for dice bias) yielded a smaller but still significant effect (ē = 0.00315, z = 3.188, p = .001), with no significant relationship between effect size and methodological quality. The pre-1975 database showed evidence of selective reporting bias. Concludes with "weak cumulative evidence" for a genuine mental intention effect on dice.
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- Testing Nonlocal Observation as a Source of Intuitive Knowledge — Radin, Dean (2008)
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📋 Cite this paper
Radin, Dean I, Ferrari, Diane C (1991). Effects of Consciousness on the Fall of Dice: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Scientific Exploration.
@article{radin_1991_effects,
title = {Effects of Consciousness on the Fall of Dice: A Meta-Analysis},
author = {Radin, Dean I and Ferrari, Diane C},
year = {1991},
journal = {Journal of Scientific Exploration},
}