Investigações psicológicas no ciberespaço: desenvolvendo modelos preditivos sobre a adesão às crenças ufológicas

This paper aimed to develop, through the use of linear regression techniques, statistical models capable of isolating and evaluating the impact of some independent variables – interest in the topic, affiliation to ufological groups, and degree of knowledge – on the adherence to beliefs about ufology and extraterrestrial entities and then, using structural equation modeling, develop explanatory models that fit data obtained in empirical research about UFO and extraterrestrial beliefs. The results of linear regression suggests that the models have a high predictive power and structural equation modeling suggests a good fit of models, presenting results compatible with the standards of behavioral sciences. Finally, the implications of these models to the psicossocial research on beliefs, specially the ufological beliefs, are discussed.Keywords: beliefs; shared beliefs; ufology