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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.