Daryl Bem
Summary
Daryl J. Bem is an American social psychologist whose mainstream career was distinguished by several major theoretical contributions to social and personality psychology — most notably self-perception theory (1967, an early and influential challenge to cognitive-dissonance theory) and important work on exotic-becomes-erotic theory of sexual-orientation development.
In 2011 Bem published a paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (one of the most prestigious mainstream psychology journals) reporting nine experiments — eight of them significant — that ostensibly demonstrated retrocausal influence (precognition) in standard psychology paradigms. The paper triggered the modern replication crisis in psychology: it forced the field to confront the methodological flexibility that had allowed such results in mainstream journals, and led directly to widespread adoption of pre-registration, larger samples, and direct-replication culture.
Life
Bem completed his BA at Reed College (1960) and PhD in social psychology at the University of Michigan (1964). He held faculty positions at Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and Harvard before joining Cornell in 1978, where he remained until his retirement.
Key Contributions
Self-perception theory
Bem's 1967 Psychological Review paper proposed self-perception theory as an alternative to cognitive-dissonance theory. The proposal:
- When internal cues are weak, people infer their own attitudes by observing their own behaviour — much as an outside observer would.
- This eliminates the need to postulate an internal "dissonance state" driving attitude change.
The theory generated decades of follow-up research and is now a standard topic in social-psychology textbooks. It remains one of the more influential ideas in 20th-century social psychology.
Exotic-becomes-erotic theory
Bem's 1996 Psychological Review paper proposed a developmental theory of sexual orientation: individuals come to find erotic those gender categories that felt "exotic" (different from self) in childhood. Controversial but widely-discussed; partially supported by some empirical work, contested by other theorists.
Polygraph methodology
Bem's work with Charles Honts and others on Control-Question Test polygraph methodology has been influential in deception-detection research.
"Feeling the Future" (2011)
The 2011 JPSP paper "Feeling the future: experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect" reported nine experiments — eight showing statistically significant effects in the predicted retrocausal direction. The paradigms were time-reversed standard psychology experiments (priming effects, memory effects, attentional cueing) with the priming or feedback occurring after the subject's response.
The publication created a major controversy. Mainstream methodological responses raised concerns about:
- Researcher degrees of freedom (flexibility in analysis decisions allowing false positives).
- Failure to pre-register specific hypotheses and analysis plans.
- Selection of analyses from larger possible analytical menus.
Direct replications by other groups produced mixed results: Galak et al. (2012) failed to replicate; Bem's own pre-registered replication compilation (2015) reported continued significant effects across multiple labs. The empirical question remains contested.
Catalysing the replication crisis
Whatever the eventual verdict on the substantive claims, the Bem paper catalysed the modern psychology replication crisis: it became the canonical example for arguments that mainstream psychology methodology was permissive enough to produce statistically-significant results for implausible hypotheses. The subsequent reforms — pre-registration, larger samples, Open Science Framework, Registered Reports format — owe much of their adoption pressure to the Bem episode.
Reception
Bem's mainstream theoretical contributions (self-perception theory) are universally respected and standard textbook material. The 2011 JPSP paper occupies a contested position:
- Mainstream skeptical response: the paper is the canonical example of how methodological flexibility allows false-positive results; the underlying retrocausal claim is implausible.
- Methodologically careful response: the paper meets the procedural standards that were conventional at the time of submission; the field's subsequent realisation that those standards are inadequate is the actual conclusion to draw, not that Bem himself was methodologically careless.
- Parapsychological community response: the Bem results are consistent with the broader presentiment literature (Radin, Mossbridge et al.) and should be taken seriously as evidence for retrocausal effects.
In the psionic framework, the Bem paradigms — time-reversed psychology experiments showing apparent retrocausal influence — are directly relevant to framework predictions about ψ-field coupling to subjective experience, particularly insofar as the framework treats time-symmetry in the underlying field as a potential source of presentiment-like phenomena.
Bibliography
- Bem, D. J. (1967). "Self-perception: an alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena." Psychological Review 74: 183-200.
- Bem, D. J. (1996). "Exotic becomes erotic: a developmental theory of sexual orientation." Psychological Review 103: 320-335.
- Bem, D. J. (2011). "Feeling the future: experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100: 407-425.
- Bem, D. J., Tressoldi, P., Rabeyron, T., Duggan, M. (2015). "Feeling the future: a meta-analysis of 90 experiments on the anomalous anticipation of random future events." F1000Research 4: 1188.
See Also
External Links
- Wikipedia: Daryl Bem
- Cornell faculty profile.
References
- As above.
- Galak, J., LeBoeuf, R. A., Nelson, L. D., Simmons, J. P. (2012). "Correcting the past: failures to replicate psi." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103: 933-948.
