I believe it has to do with people wanting to believe in the supernatural. If someone in antiquity had something that was readily unexplainable (at the time), it was usually attributed to something other-worldly like spirits, demons, angels or gods. It basically gave early man something to believe in that seemed concrete even though science would later explain much of the the phenomena.
The holdover of superstitious belief still applies today- there are several shows on TV and cable that make their money on showing mysterious happenings, hauntings and disappearances, and now we can even add UFO’s as possible causes in addition to the spiritual phenomena of the past.
I think people like mysteries, and if science cannot disprove the existence of ghosts and other similar phenomena to an individual, some prefer to believe the fantastic explanations because they see it as more interesting than the mundane one. A lot of paranormal shows even talk up the incidences of hauntings or ghost sightings so that the viewer’s mind paints in details, playing on their superstitions, preconceptions and beliefs.

Yes, there are many hoaxes, misunderstandings of natural phenomena and just as many occasions where there simply is no rational explanation readily available.
The very broad category that is the paranormal works well to assist those who feel the need to explain what they may have experienced.
I’ve personally had my fair share of unexplainable experiences. I am also purposefully skeptical, as I believe this is always the best way towards being rational and not losing sight of things when confronted with unexplainable events.
When speaking of my experiences, the label that fits the best for myself is to refer to them as ‘entities’.
I couldn’t tell you definitively if they were really ‘dead people’ or intelligent life separate from any kind of human association that I’ve encountered, or whether they were some kind of, as yet, unexplained and unknown aspect of the power of the human mind or any other kind of obscure scientific phenomena. All I can tell you is that I’ve experienced things and, at times, have had others around me whom have witnessed these same things. The term ‘mass hallucination’ just doesn’t cut it. Sometimes I truly wish it did, for it would make things so much easier to rationalise.
Even so, I still remain open to the possibility that these could all have somehow, been as a direct result of unknown phenomena associated with human mental abilities, although the beliefs I personally and currently hold towards explaining the things I’ve seen and been a part of, explain these things far easier and in more depth than the possibilities that they were ‘all in my head’ so to speak. But I am aware, that I don’t know everything and there may well be factors I’ve not taken into consideration, hence my necessity for maintaining an open mind.
All I can conclude is that there are things in this life that are incredibly strange and very, very different to what we commonly perceive as the ‘norm’. Labels help people justify these things, help them to catalogue and categorise the things that science has for now, ignored or failed to notice.
This, in my opinion, is why many people (still) believe in ‘ghosts’.

No, that answer is all wrong. People believe in things for different reasons. For instance, some people say they believe in ghosts for attention, some people see what they believe on television, and some are convinced they’ve experienced paranormal activity.
I’d like to think that after you die, you go to a certain place, and there’s no in-between. For me, I believe in the paranormal because I believe in life after death, heaven and hell, demons and portals.

why do peoplwe believe in a god withbout definative proof – the answer is that they want to believe. we dont want to be alone in the universe so we imagine there is a man in the sky.
with ghosts i believe its more we want to believe that we are not alone, and that are loved ones are not GONE

well have you ever experienced anything like a haunting experience before?
i have several times in my live but i will tell you about one of them
i was at a high school Late at night over spring brake with 4 friends anyways we where taking bong toke out side and we all say this so dont think it was cuz we where high anyways i sat and leaned back on the door and anyways the DOOR TRIED TO SLAM OPEN(it was locked) and i look up at the light and the light turned off! so we booked it to the back of the school and anyways we all herd this chick scream it sounded like a 16 year old girl getting raped i swear to God! anyways me and 3 friends Booked it and my friends where like DUDE did you hear that and i was like what child’s laughter i herd nothing cuz i was booking it off first and my friend was remind behind i spoke to him a year later about this and he was like dude i was tripping out on that scream for like a half hour
anyways i told some other people about this so we whent back to the school and the one of the dudes i was with Said Merry show us a sign and all the light flicked off! All of them it was fu-cked man!
i recommend since you dont believe in ghost or anything ask or find out where hunted places are and stay in them and see the weir sh-it that happens because that will be the only way you can see

People like to be fooled.