The people who believe in psychic abilities of animals are said to have no control over their lives. Recent research being carried out by Katharine Greenaway, psychologist at University of Psychology, has concluded in her research being carried out from 2008 to 2012 that believing in the extra powers of animals or people is nothing but an indication that believers have no control on their lives.

“The bottom line is that people don't like feeling out of control, so they go through a series of psychological gymnastics to help maintain the perception”, said Greenaway.

Greenways said that in order to reach at the above given conclusion, they asked 40 people to write about a moment in which they did have control over their situation and other moment when they did not have control over their situation and they just acted as per the given situation.

Citing an example, Greenways said that in 2010 during World Cup, people used to believe in Paul, an octopus. It used to be said that Paul’s eating habit will predict the winner of the world cup. She further affirmed that main thing to know is that people get out of control at the time when they think that they are being threatened by a situation.