home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- A SURVEY OF UFOLOGISTS AND THEIR BELIEFS IN UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA
-
- by Donald A. Johnson, Ph.D.
- P.O. Box 161, Kirkland, WA 98083-0161
- MUFON Consultant in Research Psychology
-
- In order to learn what beliefs UFOlogists hold about
- paranormal phenomena--particularly parapsychological phenomena--and
- to determine whether a relationship exists between witnessing UFO
- events and belief in psychic abilities, I conducted a small survey
- of attendees of the 1983 MUFON Symposium, held in Pasadena,
- California. This report presents the results from that survey.
-
- There were three things I hoped to accomplish by conducting
- this survey. The first goal was mainly descriptive: to determine
- what pattern of beliefs exists among UFOlogists in the various
- paranomal phenomena listed in the questionnaire. I thought it
- would be interesting to find out to what degree these beliefs
- differ from those held by the general public. The comparison data
- was supplied by a survey of 1553 adults conducted by the Gallup
- Poll in February 1978. The results were reported by Jeff Sobal and
- Charles Emmons in the Zetetic Scholar (1).
-
- The second purpose of the survey was to discover if UFO
- witnesses differ significantly from non-witnesses in their beliefs
- in unexplained phenomena, and especially to determine whether UFO
- witnesses have higher rates of belief in unexplained phenomena.
- Such a finding, if replicated, might lead to the conclusion that
- UFO witnesses, as a group, have a lower threshold of acceptance for
- phenomena not recognized or explained by current scientific
- paradigms. It could suggest that they are less skeptical and more
- credulous than non-witnesses. Evidence of this kind would tend to
- cast doubt on the validity of at least some UFO eyewitness
- testimony, because the ability of these observers to distinguish
- inexplicable phenomena from everyday events would be called into
- question.
-
- The third objective was to test the hypothesis that a
- relationship exists between belief in ones own psychic abilities
- and the witnessing of UFO phenomena. A correspondence between
- belief in psychic ability and witnessing UFO events has been
- hypothesized by a number of authors, and some tentative evidence to
- support such a relationship was presented by Benton Jamison (2) at
- the 1976 C.U.F.O.S. Conference. This relationship, should it
- exist, could have a variety of causes. It could be that greater
- open-mindedness and perceptiveness on the part of psychic UFO
- witnesses allows them to witness possibly paranormal aspects of the
- UFO phenomena, it might be that psychic individuals are selected to
- witness UFO events, or it could be that so-called "psychics" are
- simply more gullible and more easily fooled by misperceived stimuli.
-
- The survey was designed to elicit beliefs about UFOs and other
- unexplained phenonena. Two hundred questionnaires were distributed
- at the conference, and 70 completed questionnaires were returned,
- representing a 35% response rate. However, some of the
- participants were allowed to take and keep an extra copy of the
- questionnaire, so the actual participation rate may be higher.
- Since this is a "convenience" sample and not a true probability
- sample of UFO researchers, inferences about the generalizability of
- the results are generally not warranted. However, it is my opinion
- that the answers provided by the sample probably reflect the views
- of a sub-population of those individuals indentified as
- "UFOlogists". This group consists of those people with enough
- interest in the UFO phenomenon to attend a conference, and with
- sufficient interest in the general purposes of this survey to
- participate.
-
- The questionnaire consisted of two brief paragraphs describing
- the study, three questions on respondent's beliefs regarding the
- UFO phenomenon, twelve questions on other unexplained phenomena
- drawn from the Gallup Poll survey, four questions on belief in
- one's own psychic abilities, and two questions on how often the
- respondent had witnessed a UFO. All questionnaires were completed
- anonymously. In addition to completing the above mentioned items,
- participants were asked to supply information about their age, sex,
- race, education, and marital status.
-
- A few survey participants objected to using the term "belief"
- to define their opinions about the existence of paranormal
- phenomena. While I readily concede that the word is not the best
- choice of terms because of the religious connotation associated
- with its use, it was necessary to retain the terminology used by
- the Gallup Poll to insure comparability with their results. I
- don't believe that it interfered with anyone's interpretation of
- the meaning of the questions.
-
- Results. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents were male, and
- the sample was nearly equally split between married (49%) and
- unmarried (51%) individuals. Ninety-one percent listed their
- racial or ethnic group as White, while 3% were Hispanic, 3% Black,
- and 3% Asian. Two of the Black respondents also indicated they
- were part American Indian. Only two of the respondents were
- younger than thirty. In general, survey participants tended to be
- middle-aged and very well educated, as Table 1 shows. Almost half
- (46%) of the respondents had witnessed at least one UFO, and
- one-third reported having seen UFOs on more than one occasion.
-
- Table 1
-
- Age and Education of MUFON Respondents
-
- Age Category Percent
-
- 18-29 years 3
- 30-49 years 24
- 40-49 years 30
- 50-64 years 28
- 65 years and over 15
- ---
- 100%
-
- Educational level
-
- 11 years or less 0
- 12 years 8
- 13-15 years 25
- 16 years 28
- 17 years or more 39
- ---
- 100%
-
- If we assume that the sample of UFOlogists is truely
- representative of a larger population, than we can disregard for
- the moment the inappropriateness of applying statistical tests to
- the results of a "convenience" sample. Concerning the first goal
- of the survey, it turns out that UFOlogists can be categorized as
- similar to the general public in their beliefs in paranormal
- activity, except that they are significantly less likely to believe
- in angels, devils, and astrology, and significantly more likely to
- believe in evidence for psychic phenomena and the existence of
- valid cryptozoologic claims. Table 2 presents the results of the
- beliefs questions.
-
- Table 2
-
- Belief in UFOs and Other Unexplained Phenomena by MUFON Sample
-
- Percent of Respondents
- No ? Yes
- UFOs are real rather than imaginary 1 3 96 100%
- UFOs are intelligently controlled
- devices 6 8 86 100%
- UFOs are extraterrestrial visitors 4 26 70 100%
-
- Do you believe in:
- Angels 48 24 26 100%
- Devils 59 28 13 100%
- Life After Death 18 19 63 100%
- Loch Ness Monster 13 46 41 100%
- Bigfoot (Sasquatch) 10 52 38 100%
- Witches 62 23 15 100%
- Ghosts 38 31 31 100%
- Astrology 63 21 16 100%
- ESP 9 23 68 100%
- Precognition 11 25 64 100%
- Deja vu 14 41 45 100%
- Clairvoyance 16 25 58 100%
-
- In general, the Gallup Poll results reveal that the more
- education one has the more likely one is to believe in psychic
- abilities. When compared to only those with college training, the
- differences in belief in psychic phenomena become less noticeable.
- Belief in precognition and clairvoyance are still significantly
- more common among UFOlogists than among the college trained general
- public, but no significant differences remain for "ESP" or "deja
- vu".
-
- The results on whether UFOlogists who report having seen a UFO
- differ in their beliefs from UFOlogists who have never had a UFO
- sighting are not definitive. On the one hand, there was a trend
- among some who have witnessed the UFO phenomenon to be less
- critical of other unexplained phenomenon. However, the sample size
- is not sufficient to make any conclusions about that trend. The
- data are reported in Table 3. The data are presented in two ways:
- with the percentage who had responded "yes" to each of the "do you
- believe in" statements; and as an average of the numeric values of
- the responses, with "no" coded 1, "?" coded 2, and "yes" coded 3.
- There were 31 who reported having had at least one UFO sighting and
- 36 who reported not having had any sightings.
-
- Table 3
-
- Comparison of the beliefs of UFO witnesses and non-witnesses
-
- Witnesses Non-witnesses
- % Yes Ave. % Yes Ave.
- UFOs are real rather than imaginary 100 3.00 92 2.89
- UFOs are intelligently controlled
- devices 94 2.90 78 2.69
- UFOs are extraterrestrial visitors 77 2.77 61 2.52
-
- Do you believe in:
- Angels 43 2.17 17 1.56
- Devils 21 1.75 8 1.42
- Life After Death 76 2.66 51 2.29
- Loch Ness Monster 48 2.41 36 2.19
- Bigfoot 50 2.43 31 2.19
- Witches 24 1.76 8 1.36
- Ghosts 45 2.17 22 1.81
- Astrology 21 1.66 14 1.47
- ESP 73 2.63 64 2.56
- Precognition 69 2.58 63 2.54
- Deja vu 54 2.39 40 2.29
- Clairvoyance 68 2.54 53 2.39
-
- The differences between the two groups were greatest for
- beliefs in religious phenomena such as angels and life after death,
- and for the "Halloween" associated phenomena of ghosts and
- witches. While these differences prove nothing, they do suggest
- that the non-witnesses show more skepticism in general, which might
- lead one to infer that they also have a higher threshold for
- rejecting unusual phenomena they personally observe as lacking a
- mundane explanation. Conversely, it may also be seen as evidence
- suggesting that at least some UFO witnesses are less skeptical and
- more credulous that non-witnesses. In one respect, "seeing" does
- seem to equate with "believing": respondents who had witnessed
- UFOs more than once were significantly more likely to say that UFOs
- are extraterrestrial visitors (87%) than those who had never
- witnessed the UFO phenomenon or had witnessed it only once (59%).
-
- There were no significant differences between a belief in ones
- own psychic abilities and whether or not one has personally
- witnessed the UFO phenomenon. Table 4 displays these results for
- both witnesses and non-witnesses. However, there were significant
- differences for the number of UFO encounters for both belief in
- pre-cognition ability and psychokinesis ability. Those who
- responded yes to the pre-cognition question reported an average of
- 2.9 UFO sightings compared to an average of one UFO sighting for
- the remainder of the sample. Those who felt they had an ability
- with psychokinesis reportedly had seen UFOs an average of 3.33
- times, compared to 1.1 times for those who said they did not have
- the ability or weren't sure.
-
-
-
- Table 4
-
- Comparison of the psychic ability beliefs of
- UFO witnesses and non-witnesses
-
- Witnesses Non-witnesses
- % Yes Ave. % Yes Ave.
- Believe have some ability to gain
- extra-sensory perceptions (ESP) of
- thoughts and feelings of other
- people (telepathy)? 48 2.32 53 2.25
-
- Believe have some ability to gain
- impressions of events or objects
- which are outside usual environ-
- ment (clairvoyance)? 45 2.10 36 1.92
-
- Believe have some ability to gain
- impressions of future events
- (pre-cognition)? 42 2.16 33 1.86
-
- Believe have some ability to
- influence the physical environment
- around you (psychokinesis or "mind
- over matter")? 27 1.76 19 1.64
-
-
- This last finding is interesting, but it is certainly
- preliminary and open to a wide variety of interpretations. As I
- mentioned previously, "psychics" may simply be more gullible and
- more apt to misinterpret ambiguous stimuli, or it might be that
- they are actually more perceptive and that this perceptiveness has
- some relation to the UFO phenomenon. Before we lend further
- credence to this latter interpretation it would behoove us to test
- these individuals under controlled, laboratory conditions; to
- determine whether these abilities can indeed be proven to exist.
-
- References
-
- (1) Sobal, Jeff and Charles F. Emmons (1982). Patterns of belief
- in religious, psychic and other paranormal phenomena,
- Zetetic Scholar, no. 9 (March 1982), pp. 7-17.
-
- (2) Jamison, Benton (1976). Some proposals: Modest, immodest,
- and maybe fundable. In Nancy Dourbos (ed.), Proceedings
- of the 1976 CUFOS Conference. Evanston, IL: Center for
- UFO Studies, pp. 119-132.
-