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Event / publication / experimentBranchesMarch 2011

The "Feeling the future" experiments

Daryl BemStuart RitchieRichard WisemanChristopher French

This page delivers no verdict; it presents claims and evidence with their sources. No theory in science is absolute. Method

For everyone

In 2011 the social psychologist Daryl Bem published nine experiments in one of psychology's most respected journals, reporting that participants "sensed" events that had not yet happened slightly better than chance. Independent replications did not find the effect. The controversy became one of the events that set off psychology's replication crisis.

For specialists

Bem tested known effects (e.g. affective priming, practice effects) with the direction of time reversed and reported significant results in eight of nine experiments. Three replications by Ritchie, Wiseman and French found no effect; their paper was initially rejected by the same journal on the grounds that it did not publish replications. A 2015 meta-analysis of 90 experiments by Bem and colleagues reported a significant effect.

Claims

Evidence

Supporting

Experiment

Small but significant effects were reported in eight of nine time-reversed paradigms.[1]

Statistics / meta-analysis

A meta-analysis of 90 experiments from 33 laboratories reported a significant effect.[2]

Challenging

Replication study

Three independent replications failed to find the "retroactive facilitation of recall" effect.[3]

Methodological critique

It was argued that the results can be explained by analytic flexibility and weaknesses in psychology's standard statistical practices.[4]

Connections

Parent

Parapsychology

Related

The replication crisis

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Sources

  1. ArticleBem, D. J. (2011). Feeling the future: experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100(3), 407–425DOI 10.1037/a0021524archive
  2. ArticleBem, D.; 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, 1188DOI 10.12688/f1000research.7177.2archive
  3. ArticleRitchie, S. J.; Wiseman, R.; French, C. C. (2012). Failing the future: three unsuccessful attempts to replicate Bem's 'retroactive facilitation of recall' effect. PLoS ONE 7(3), e33423DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0033423archive
  4. ArticleWagenmakers, E.-J.; Wetzels, R.; Borsboom, D.; van der Maas, H. L. J. (2011). Why psychologists must change the way they analyze their data: the case of psi — comment on Bem (2011). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100(3), 426–432DOI 10.1037/a0022790archive

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Cite this page

APA

Athena contributors. (2026). The "Feeling the future" experiments. Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/bem-2011/

BibTeX
@misc{athena_bem_2011,
  title        = {The "Feeling the future" experiments},
  author       = {{Athena contributors}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/bem-2011/}},
  note         = {Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Accessed: 2026-11-01}
}

Added: September 27, 2026 · Last changed: September 27, 2026 · Page history

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