Are You Afraid of the Ouija Board?
The spirits may not hold any power over people, but belief does.
Posted August 5, 2025 | Reviewed by Margaret Foley
Many people believe in the power of the Ouija board and warn against playing with it because of the fear that users open themselves up to some supernatural threat. This worry is especially prevalent in horror films and television shows, where it has remained a stock scare element since the release of The Exorcist (Schmidt, 2025) . On the other hand, plenty of people think of it as just a harmless game. This is how its producer and copyright holder, Hasbro, characterizes it (Hasbro, 2025). Then there is the scientific perspective. While the Ouija board is not particularly well-studied, the research to date suggests that natural factors, like subconscious body movements, are what is really at work here (Gordon & Rosenbaum, 1984).
If the naturalistic perspective is right, does that prove that Ouija boards are completely harmless? The answer is more complicated than one might think, but a new study sought to address this question. The research by Álex Escolà-Gascón, Neil Dagnall, and Andrew Denovan (2025) appeared in the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, and it revealed some important findings about Ouija boards and the possible consequences of their use.
Before examining the results, it’s worth reviewing some Ouija board basics since these figure in the research design. Also called spirit boards, talking boards, or even witch boards, Ouija boards are a familiar fixture in popular culture, especially in scary movies and similar contexts. While many variations exist, most characteristics pertaining to the Ouija board are relatively standardized. They typically include a piece of cardboard or wood (i.e., the board itself), inscribed with the alphabet, Arabic numerals, and some short words like "yes," "no," and "goodbye." A planchette is also included: a smaller wooden or plastic board standing on pegs or casters to enable it to glide over the board.
To use a Ouija board, the planchette is placed on the board, and two or more participants place their fingertips gently on the planchette. They must then ask questions to the alleged spirits nearby, typically beginning with an inquiry like “Is there anyone here that would like to talk?” If all goes well, the planchette should then move across the board, spelling out answers to these questions, by pointing toward one letter, number, or word at a time.
It is a common belief that the participants are not the ones who are moving the planchette during a session. Rather, it is supposed to be the spirits themselves who are using some form of spectral force to guide it in response to the seeker’s questions. Scientists, however, have naturalistic explanations for this phenomenon (see Vyse, 2024, for an overview). However, the perception that some other force is moving the planchette can seem very convincing to participants.
There is no science-based reason to think spirits exist, nor that they can contact the living through something like a Ouija board. However, that doesn’t mean that using one can’t be harmful. As the authors of the study point out, there is ample cause to believe that consulting a board can produce psychological harm. In particular, because popular culture so commonly portrays Ouija boards as evil and dangerous, exposure to them could create a potentially harmful sense of fear and trauma in people familiar with that framing.
To test this possibility, they conducted a quasi-experimental investigation with 84 volunteers. These participants were recruited from a prior study pool that the authors constructed, as well as through a variety of Facebook groups. The researchers identified whether each participant believed in the paranormal, then put together test groups, each consisting of two believers and two nonbelievers for each experimental session.
These sessions ran over a period of two years. These were conducted at Montserrat Mountain near Barcelona, a locale that the authors note is famous for its supernatural and miraculous legends. Moreover, participants met at night in front of an abandoned hotel that had previously been used as a hospital during the Spanish Civil War. These elements contrived to produce an atmosphere conducive to attempts at contacting the other side. Once situated, the participants were instructed to use a Ouija board to do just that. Specific protocols, such as session length and question procedure, were well-defined and described in detail in the report.
Importantly, the researchers administered a questionnaire to the participants as well. This included a pretest just before the Ouija session as well as a post-test. The latter was administered no sooner than seven days after the session. This approach allowed the team to determine if any changes occurred in the participants’ mental state after their Ouija board use. The items measured included four traits:
Given the controlled conditions of the study, increases in self-reports of these measures following Ouija board use would suggest that the board session produced these changes in the participants. Changes in the anxiety measures in particular would be of interest, since these can be conceptualized as a sort of stressor or even trauma induced by attempts to consult the oracle.
The Real Power of the Board
The findings showed that there were, in fact, changes in some subjects after they used the board. However, this was only noted in participants who said that they believed in the paranormal beforehand. They reported higher levels of anxiety, altered states of consciousness, and perception of anomalous phenomena. Nonbelievers experienced no such change. In fact, the statistical models were only significant once belief status was controlled for.
Perhaps even more interesting is that the authors point out that there is a possibility of a feedback loop in the believing participants’ minds. Not only did they report higher levels of these traits than nonbelievers, but they also demonstrated higher levels of them when comparing just the pretests. For example, believers demonstrated more anxiety than nonbelievers from the start, and the difference only grew following the Ouija board session. In this case, belief in the paranormal was accompanied by anxiety and fear, all of which conspire to make ambiguous games like the Ouija board seem like they are producing real, supernatural results. This experience, in turn, creates more fear and anxiety. In fact, believers often mistake the experience of fear itself as proof of supernatural presence, as demonstrated by research on similar practices like ghost hunting (Debies-Carl, 2023).
The results of the study suggest, not surprisingly, that simply using a Ouija board is perfectly safe. It is, after all, just some wood, cardboard, or plastic. However, belief in the board’s powers and in supernatural entities is very real for some people. It is that belief itself, and not any external force or power, which creates changes in a believer’s psychological state and can even affect their mental well-being. As the authors point out, though, not all paranormal beliefs are as negative as those that commonly pertain to Ouija boards. Therefore, in some contexts, belief could yield emotionally helpful outcomes. Those outcomes, however, would still not reveal a supernatural reality, just a psychological one.
Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2000). The Kuwait University anxiety scale: psychometric properties. Psychological Reports , 87 (2), 478-492. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.2000.87.2.478
Bateson, M., Brilot, B., & Nettle, D. (2011). Anxiety: an evolutionary approach. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry , 56 (12), 707-715. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371105601202
Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Brown, G., & Steer, R. A. (1988). An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: psychometric properties. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology , 56 (6), 893. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.56.6.893
Debies-Carl, J. (2023). If you should go at midnight: Legends and legend tripping in America. University Press of Mississippi. https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/I/If-You-Should-Go-at-Midnight
Escolà-Gascón, Á., Dagnall, N., & Gallifa, J. (2021). The Multivariable Multiaxial Suggestibility Inventory-2 (MMSI-2): a psychometric alternative to measure and explain supernatural experiences. Frontiers in Psychology , 12 , 692194. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.692194
Escolà-Gascón, Á., Dagnall, N., & Denovan, A. (2025). Increase in reported anxiety and anomalous experiences in paranormal believers following Ouija board play. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice . Online ahead of print at https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cns0000415
Gordon, A. M., & Rosenbaum, D. A. (1984). Conscious and subconscious arm movements: application of signal detection theory to motor control. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society , 22 (3), 214-216. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333809
Hasbro. (2025). Ouija board. https://www.hasbropulse.com/product/ouija-board/HPG0500000?srsltid=AfmBOop_vcs7qVROnu-2Cyo4_LoCsdvh6g2ciLL1_ntTbSfYSgyP7iUD
Schmidt, K. (Ed.). (2025). Ouija: Conjuring American popular culture . Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003352440
Vyse, S. (2024). How does the Ouija board work? Skeptical Inquirer , 48(6). https://skepticalinquirer.org/2024/10/how-does-the-ouija-board-work/
Share this post Facebook Bluesky Linkedin Email
There was a problem adding your email address. Please try again.
By submitting your information you agree to the Psychology Today Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl, Ph.D. , is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Psychology and Sociology at the University of New Haven.
Get the help you need from a therapist near you–a FREE service from Psychology Today.
This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.