Scientifical Americans: The Culture of Amateur Paranormal Researchers

In the 21st century, reality television and the Internet have fed public interest in ghosts, UFOs, cryptozoology and other unusual phenomena. By 2010, roughly 2000 amateur research and investigation groups formed in the U.S.--ghost hunters, Bigfoot chasers and UFO researchers, using an array of (supposedly) scientific equipment and methods to prove the existence of the paranormal.

American culture's honorific regard for science, coupled with the public's unfamiliarity with scientific metho...