I’ve discussed and debated this issue for years, and as large part of the paranormal community has shifted from confirming a haunting to debunking, psychological contamination still remains prevalent in paranormal investigation.  The main form of psychological contamination comes from telling investigators what might be expected.  For the investigators that are still running under the premise of confirming a haunting this is important because they are trying to confirm the reports so they can confirm the haunting.  For those who go into debunk the reports, telling investigators what has been reported to happen is important so they can test to see if there is worldly explanation for whatever has been reported.  Neither of these scenarios is good investigation and both are biased before the investigation gets off the ground.  These types of investigating are bound to produce biased results and not necessarily biased towards the method they are using.  But telling investigators what to expect can often lead to them experiencing something, or I should say perceiving they experienced something when they didn’t, and then drawing false conclusions from that perceived experience.

This I experienced first hand when I conducted a little experiment to see if telling investigators stories associated with a location that wasn’t haunted.  But this wasn’t the first time I’ve witnessed psychological contamination at work, nor is this the only way for psychological contamination to enter into an investigation.

Not only can investigators be influenced by the initial stories about a locations history of paranormal activity, but there’s also the contamination that occurs during an investigation with excited statements like, “Did you see that?!”   Anytime emotion is interjected into a statement those listening will often begin to share in that emotion.   In the above example other investigators become preconditioned that there is something to see regardless of whether or not there is.

Investigators need to be very careful about what they say and how they react when investigating.   It is very easy to influence others with not only words, but with body language conveyed in their communications.   This is primarily what teenagers feed on when they’re checking out a cemetery or local haunt.   Usually there’s one excitable person in the group and their excitement becomes contagious, causing the others to loose control of their emotions and begin to distort events around them into paranormal encounters.  Investigators can fall prey to this same thing, and is why they should always remain calm so as not to fall victim to such a scenario.  To do so simply turns what might be a reasonable investigation into a ‘spook hunt’.