NOVEMBER 2009, Volume 37 Number 2, Article 5
Correlations Between Fantasy Proneness, Dissociation, Personality Factors and Paranormal Beliefs in Experiencers of Paranormal and Anomalous Phenomena
Kathryn M. Gow, Louise Hutchinson, and David Chant, Queensland University of Technology
This study examined various psychological correlates of belief in, and experience of, anomalous phenomena. Anomalous experience are those that, although they may be experienced by a considerable number of individuals – such as experiences considered to be telepathic – are thought to diverge from ordinary experiences or from established accounts of reality. One hundred and seventy-three participants (114 females and 59 males) were classified as anomalous experiences (n =125), anomalous believers (n =39) and non-believers (n =9), according to their responses on a Measure of Anomalous Experiences and Beliefs. Focusing on the Experiencer group, correlational analyses were conducted with fantasy proneness, dissociation, paranormal beliefs, and the personality correlates of “intuition” and “feeling”. Analyses revealed significant correlations between fantasy proneness and five of the seven subscales of paranormal belief and significant moderate (to low) correlations with both the “intuition” and “feeling” dimensions of the MBTI. Dissociation was also related to global paranormal belief and to the subscales of psi, superstition, and extraordinary life forms.