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

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.

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