Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect

Record summary

Daryl Bem’s paper reported nine experiments, conducted largely with Cornell University participants, claiming that future events could influence present responses, including erotic-image anticipation and retroactive memory effects. It became a central modern controversy because the methods initially appeared conventional while later attempts at replication produced mixed or null findings. The lead matters for comparing experimental psi claims with debates about optional stopping, publication bias, preregistration, and statistical inference. The reported effects should be treated as disputed experimental results, not evidence that precognition is established.