On Dowsing and the importance of a double blind study

In this video, rationalist Richard Dawkins checks out a study in progress to determine whether or not there is anything substantial about the practice of dowsing for water.

The study is double-blind (so neither the participants nor the observers know beforehand where the water is stored). There are 6 containers, and the participants are supposed to identify which container holds the water and which container holds the sand. They do this 6 times in order to determine if any successes were statistically significant.

What did they find? I hope I've piqued your curiosity enough to watch the video :)

What I find interesting about the video is after the participants are told the results, we get a little insight into human nature and how readily our left hemisphere makes excuses for things that lie outside of our current belief paradigm. It was quite fascinating to think about.