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Psychic Experiences in the Multinational Human
Values Study: Who Reports Them?
ERLENDUR HARALDSSON AND JOOP M. HOUTKOOPER1
ABSTRACT: Three items on personal psychic experiences (telepathy, clairvoyance, and
contact with the dead) were included in a survey on human values that was conducted on
large representative samples in 13 countries in Europe and in the U.S. (N = 18,607). The
three items were originally formulated by Andrew Greeley and were translated into different
European languages. In Europe, the percentage of persons reporting telepathy was 34%;
clairvoyance was reported by 21%; and 25% reported contact with the dead. Percentages for
the U.S. were considerably higher: 54%, 25% and 30%, respectively. There were great
national differences; for example, 60% of Americans and Italians reported some psychic
experience, but only 24% of the Norwegians made such claims. Looking into the question of
how people who report psychic experiences differ from those who do not revealed little or no
effect of education and age but rather striking effects of sex, marital status, reporting positive
and negative affects on the Bradburn Affect Scale, and several other variables. The question
of whether some of these associations could be due to a response bias effect was considered,
and as far as could be ascertained, there was no response bias effect, meaning that the
associations were quite specific. After national differences, the variables best predicting that
one has had some psychic experience were sum of affect according to the Bradburn Affect
Scale and belief in reincarnation.
In the past 10-15 years, surveys have been conducted in a few coun-
tries that used large representative national samples and included items on
psychic experiences and beliefs (Audience Selection, 1980; Greeley,
1975; Haraldsson, 1978, 1985; IMU 1978, 1980). It is interesting to note
that most of these surveys were initiated by sociologists and journalists
outside the field of parapsychology. These surveys have provided an op-
portunity to make cross-national comparisons of the frequency of reports
of various psychic experiences and beliefs. However, differences in the
content and wording of items have made direct comparisons across coun-
tries both difficult and highly tentative. Haraldsson (1985) has reported on
such surveys in Iceland, Great Britain, Sweden, and the United States,
and he has made a tentative comparison of findings across countries.
Striking national differences were found in both the frequency of reported
experiences and belief in various kinds of allegedly paranormal phe-
nomena.
1 The authors gratefully acknowledge two research grants from the Parapsychology Foun-
dation in the U.S., a travel grant from the Tiger Trust in Holland, and support from the
University of Iceland.
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Psychical Research Vol. 85, April 1991

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BACKGROUND OF THE EUROPEAN HUMAN VALUES SURVEY
In 1981-1984 a multi-national survey-sometimes called the European
Human Values Study-was conducted in most countries of Western
Europe and in the United States. The survey should be of particular in-
terest to readers of this Journal and all psi researchers because it con-
tained three items on psychic experiences, and these same items were used
in all the participating countries.
The European Value Systems Study Group (EVSSG), which organized
the survey, was initiated by J. Kerkhofs of the University of Louvain in
Belgium. The group now has its center at the University of Tilburg in the
Netherlands (directed by R. A. de Moor). The EVSSG consists mainly of
European sociologists with long experience in research on values and
norms. They constructed the original questionnaire, but the paranormal
items were originally devised by the well-known sociologist-priest-nov-
elist Andrew Greeley.
The central concern of the EVSSG was whether or not Western Euro-
peans have one common value system. They were interested in the extent
to which their norms and values might differ or be similar. Gallup or
Gallup-affiliated companies carried out the survey on behalf of the
EVSSG. In 1981, the survey was conducted in nine Western European
countries. Later, several more countries in Europe, Asia, and the
Americas joined the project. The survey has now been conducted in 16
European countries and 11 countries in the Americas and Asia, but the
data from some of the non-European countries have not been made avail-
able. Gallup International in London coordinated the fieldwork.
This is the largest survey conducted to date that allows so many cross-
cultural or cross-national comparisons on human beliefs and values. The
principal findings from a comparison of 10 selected Western European
countries are discussed in the book Contrasting Values in Western Europe
(Harding, Phillips, & Fogarty, 1986). Several books have been published
on the findings in individual countries (e.g., Abrams, Gerard, & Timms,
1985; Halman, Heunks, Moor, & Zanders, 1987; Noelle-Neumann &
Köcher, 1987). Numerous papers have been written on various aspects of
this survey (see the European Value Systems Study Group's Information
Bulletin 1987).
E. Haraldsson was a member of a group of researchers who prepared
the survey in Iceland, and he later obtained access to all the data files from
Western Europe and the U.S.
METHOD
The Samples
The samples were representative of the adult population in all the partic-
ipating countries, and standard sampling methods were used to obtain
147
Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study
them (Harding, Phillips, & Fogarty, 1986). The mean sample size for the
14 countries that are included in most of our analyses is 1,329 persons.
These samples are from Iceland (927), Denmark (1,182), Finland (1,003),
Norway (1,246), Sweden (954), Great Britain (1,231), Ireland (1,217),
West Germany (1,305), the Netherlands (1,221), Belgium (1,145), France
(1,200), Italy (1,348), Spain (2,303) and the U.S. (2,325). A few results
are given for South Korea (942). The total number of persons interviewed
in the European and U.S. samples is 18,607. All of the interviews were
conducted face-to-face.
The Questionnaire
The EVSSG questionnaire consists of over 120 items, many with sey
eral subitems. (For the full text of the basic English version of the ques
tionnaire, see Harding, Phillips, & Fogarty, 1986.) The same basic que
tionnaire was used in all the participating countries with a few questions
local interest added to it in several of the countries. The questionnaig
surveyed a variety of values, attitudes, and behaviors and was divided into
the following six domains:
1. Leisure. There were 19 items on leisure, psychological well-being
etc. For example: "Thinking of the way you spend your leisure time, what
is more important to you, to relax as much as possible or doing things
being active?"
2. Work. There were 12 items on attitudes toward work and wog
ethics; for example, which of 16 listed aspects in a job are important to
respondent, such as good pay, pleasant people to work with, etc.
3. Meaning and purpose of life. There were 23 items dealing with reli-
gious beliefs and practices but also with such questions as, "In the long
run do you think that scientific advances we are making will help or hace
mankind?" (The three paranormal items of Greeley were included in this
section.)
4. Family life. There were 20 items dealing with various aspectscuf
relations to other people, such as how close your father and mother wege
to you during the time when you were growing up.
5. Contemporary social issues. There were 21 items on politics
various social issues, such as describing one's political interests.
6. Demographic information. There were 17 items in this category,
including sex, age, education, socioeconomic status, and other baek-
ground variables.
Of particular interest to us are the three items that deal with paranormal
experiences. They were taken from a survey entitled The Ultimate Values
of the American Population by two University of Chicago sociologists,
William McCready and Andrew Greeley (1976). These items are some-
times referred to as the Greeley items because Andrew Greeley composed
them. One of the Greeley items concerned spiritual/religious experiences
and will not be dealt with in this paper.
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The items are as follows:
Did you ever have any of the following experiences:
(1) Felt as though you were in touch with someone when they were far
away from you;
(2) Seen events that happened at a great distance as they were happening;
(3) Felt as though you were really in touch with someone who had died;
(4) Felt as though you were close to a powerful spiritual life force that
seemed to lift you out of yourself. [The responses to this query were not
included in our analyses.]
Response alternatives for the items were: no never, yes, don't know.
For convenience, the three Greeley items will hereafter be referred to as
telepathy, clairvoyance, and contact with the dead.
Limitations of the Data
There are some obvious limitations to the data elicited by the three
questions concerning telepathy, clairvoyance, and contact with the dead:
a) We are only dealing with reported experiences. No attempt was made to
investigate or verify/falsify any reported experiences. b) From the para-
psychologist's point of view, these items are far from being worded in the
ideal fashion. The wording "felt as though" (used in the first and third
items) is particularly critical because respondents may have reported in-
stances in which they were not sure that the experience was genuine, al-
though they may have "felt as though" they were having the experience.
c) Exact translations of items from one language to another can be diffi-
cult, and nuances of translations may in some cases provide a source of
error.
In spite of these limitations, there are relatively comparable representa-
tive survey data from most countries of Western Europe and the U.S.
Bearing the above limitations in mind, we still have a better opportunity
than ever before to get answers to such questions as: How commonly in
various countries do people report experiences of telepathy, clairvoyance,
and contact with the dead? Are there significant national differences in
reporting these experiences? What, if anything, characterizes those who
report psychic experiences? Do they differ in any meaningful way from
those who report none? Does this huge amount of data give any support to
the notion that there is a "psychic personality"?
RESULTS
First, let us look at the overall results for each of the three types of
experiences. For the combined 13 participating countries in Europe, telep-
athy was reported more frequently than the other experiences. Weighing
the figures by national population sizes, it can be estimated that 32% of
Europeans from these 13 countries have experienced telepathy, 20% have
Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study
had a personal experience of clairvoyance, and that contact with the dead
was experienced by 23%. The percentages for the U.S. are higher in all
instances: telepathy, 54%; clairvoyance, 25%; and contact with the dead,
30%. The results for each country and Europe combined are given in
Table 1.
Telepathy
The answers varied greatly from one country to another in regard to the
number of persons who reported having "felt as though you were in touch
with someone when they were far away from you." In the U.S., this
experience was reported by 54% of the respondents-which far exceeds
any European nation surveyed. Italy, which was highest in Europe, cam
next with the considerably lower figure of 41%. Finland followed with
40%, then West Germany with 39%, Great Britain (36%), and France and
Iceland, who both reported 34%. Denmark had the lowest percentage o
persons reporting telepathy (15%). Second and third among the lowest are
Norway and Ireland, with 17% and 19%, respectively. The Danish resul
are reminiscent of the earlier finding that only 11% of respondents re
ported a paranormal experience in a 2-item survey initiated by the Danis
Society for Psychical Research in 1957 (Gallup Markedsanalyse, 1957@
We have this figure for one Asian country, South Korea, where 48%
the respondents reported telepathy (Gallup International, 1984).
Nationality is evidently an important and significant factor in the
porting of telepathic experiences.
Table 1
PERCENTAGE OF PERSONS IN THE HUMAN VALUES SURVEY REPORTING EXPERIENCES
Telepathy
Clairvoyance
Contact with
the de
France
34
24
24~
Italy
41
39
34 @
Spain
21
14
16 90
Belgium
21
14
18 a
Great Britain
36
14
26@
West Germany
39
17
28
Holland
29
12
12%
Ireland
19
11
16
Denmark
15
12
100
Finland
40
15
140
Iceland
34
7
41
Norway
17
7
Sweden
24
7
14
EUROPE
34
21
26
U.S.
54
25
30
South Korea
48
25
23
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Clairvoyance
For clairvoyance, national differences range from 7-39%. The Italians
lead in a prominent way with 39% of respondents-more than every third
person-reporting having "seen events that happened at a great distance
as they were happening." Americans came second with 25% and were
closely followed by the French (24%). Then came West Germany (17%)
and Finland (15%). Great Britain, Spain, and Belgium each reported 14%.
The lowest percentages are found in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, with
7% each. It is worth noting that in every country people are considerably
less likely to report clairvoyant than telepathic experiences.
Contact with the Dead
Having "felt as though you were really in touch with someone who had
died" was the second most often reported experience in Europe as well as
in the U.S. Again, large national differences are found, with the per-
centages ranging from 9%-41%. Iceland leads with 41% of the respon-
dents reporting a personal experience of contact with the dead. Italy is
second with 34%, and the U.S. had 30%. West Germany and Great
Britain follow closely with 28% and 26%, respectively. Denmark and
Norway have the lowest percentages, with 10% and 9%, respectively. In
Europe as a whole, every fourth person polled reports having felt them-
selves to have been in actual touch with someone who had died.
Any Paranormal Experience
For Europe as a whole, nearly half of the population (46%) reported one
or more of the three types of paranormal experiences. It is also quite evi-
dent that the percentage differs widely within the group of countries, as
can be seen in Table 2. The U.S. and Italy lead with 60% of respondents
reporting some psychic experience. Iceland is third with 52%; Germany,
France, Finland, and Britain follow with 49%, 48%, 45%, and 44%, re-
spectively. Norway and Denmark, the two countries culturally closest to
Iceland, have the lowest percentages, with about a quarter of the respon-
dents reporting any experience.
Number of Paranormal Experiences
Of those who report any paranormal experience at all, 49% in Europe
and 47% in the U.S. profess to have had only one kind of experience,
whereas 8% and 11%, respectively, reported having had all three kinds of
experiences.
The three items correlate significantly with one another. In the com-
bined countries in Europe, the highest correlation (Kendall tau) is between
telepathic experience and clairvoyance at .46. The correlation between
Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study
Table 2
PERCENTAGE OF PERSONS IN THE HUMAN VALUES SURVEY REPORTING
PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES
Any psychic
experience
Number of experiences
1
2
3
U.S.
60
40
28
21
11
Italy
60
40
24
22
14
Iceland
52
48
27
22
3
West Germany
49
51
27
17
5
France
48
52
25
15
Finland
45
55
28
12
Great Britain
44
56
21
16
$
Holland
34
66
21
11
Spain
32
68
19
9
Sweden
31
69
20
9
Ireland
30
70
18
9
Belgium
29
71
16
8
Denmark
25
75
18
6
Norway
24
76
15
7
EUROPE
46
54
23
16
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telepathy and contact with the dead is .40 and between clairvoyance any
contact with the dead it is .34.2 In the U.S., these numbers were .29, .38
and .28, respectively. Thus, for the U.S., the relationship between tele
athy and contact with the dead is the most prominent.
Who Reports Psychic Experiences?
The great number and variety of variables in this survey provide
unique opportunity to search for the characteristics of those who repos
psychic experiences. For brevity's sake, let us call them the psychics
keeping in mind the inherent limitations of the data, particularly the ques
tion of validity, and the extent to which the reported instances are indeed
dealing with genuine psychic experiences. Can the psychics be disting
guished from the nonpsychics? Because there are large samples from
many countries, the generality of the findings of one country sample cag
easily be tested across countries, but here again, it must be kept in mind
that the survey reveals national differences.
Sex. In Europe, many more women (38%) reported telepathic experi
ences than men (30%), and a comparable difference was found in the U.S.
2 Throughout this paper, the Kendall tau is used as a measure of association. It is also used
in the case of dichotomous variables in which we present the strengths of the associations in a
uniform manner, rather than test their significances. Nevertheless, T can be used provided, as
we do, that the correction for ties is applied. In general, the correlations were calculated
across individuals.
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(59% vs. 47%). Only in Holland and Norway do equal proportions of the
sexes report telepathy, and in no country did men report it more frequently
than women. It can be firmly stated that in most countries women have a
greater tendency than men to report telepathy.
This sex difference is not equal for the three kinds of experiences. For
clairvoyance this difference is generally very slight, and it was even re-
versed in five countries where more men than women report clairvoyance,
although this difference is not significant in any country. In five countries
there is no difference, as in the U.S.
The sex difference becomes strongest when reporting contact with the
dead. In Europe, 30% of the women and 20% of the men report such an
experience; the difference is comparable in the U.S. (34% vs. 25%).
When we look at the results in regard to reporting some psychic experi-
ence (see Table 3), we find that in all countries but one-Holland-there
are more psychics among women than men, and there the difference is
small (35% vs. 34%).
Education. Is the reporting of paranormal experiences a deficiency syn-
drome of some kind that shows a lack of education? For Europe as a
whole, 37% of the college-educated report telepathic experiences, as do
32% of those who finished their education immediately after primary
school. Again, there are national differences. In 11 countries, relatively
more college-educated than only primary-school-educated respondents re-
ported telepathy. This tendency was reversed only in Great Britain and
there only marginally so. In the U.S., the telepaths were found in equal
numbers among the primary- and college-educated. Clairvoyance was
generally not affected by education in Europe or the U.S., whereas the
less educated reported more contact with the dead.
In Europe as well as in the U.S., the length of formal education has no
effect on the reporting of some paranormal experience. The correlation
with the reporting of some paranormal experience is .00 for Europe and
.02 for the U.S.
Marital status. Probably most people would not expect marital status to
be related in any way to how likely people are to report paranormal experi-
ences, but that is incorrect (see Table 4). In Europe, about a third of the
married and the single respondents, 31% and 36%, respectively, report an
experience of telepathy. For other groups the situation is different. Almost
half of those living together as married (i.e., not legally married) (44%),
the separated (53%), and the divorced (47%) report telepathic experi-
ences. The same trend is evident in the U.S. Of the married and single
respondents, about half (51% and 53%, respectively) profess to have had
telepathic experiences, against almost two-thirds of those who are living
as married, separated, or divorced and widowed (65%, 66%, 64%). It
should be pointed out that the number of respondents in what we might
call the broken-relationship groups is relatively small in all countries.
In all 15 countries, relatively fewer single and married persons report
telepathy than the combined broken-relationship group of those living as
Table 3
PERCENTAGE OF PERSONS REPORTING ANY PSYCHIC EXPERIENCE BY SIGNIFICANT VARIABLES
Total
Men
Sex
Women
Pri
Education
Sec
Col
Belief in
reincarnation
Y
Z
Belief in spirit
or life force
Y
Others
Z
Often
Rarely
Never
France
48
41
55
47
49
48
61
45
56
45
5
42
55
48
40
34
Italy
60
54
65
58
56
66
68
59
63
56
66
45
73
33
51
Spain
32
28
36
31
31
35
39
30
35
31
35
25
45
28
25
Belgium
29
25
33
25
28
35
50
29
43
25
37
22
41
17
19
Great Britain
44
40
49
50
41
46
59
36
52
54
46
59
29
65
West Germany
49
42
54
44
47
51
66
43
50
34
48
29
41
27
53
34
24
22
Holland
34
35
34
31
31
28
34
39
29
38
28
33
17
41
29
21
23
Ireland
30
27
33
29
26
25
48
22
35
2
32
19
39
23
19
9
Finlandª
28
Iceland
47
58
28
22
24
30
21
52
21
29
16
32
26
15
7
Norway
25
38
31
29
38
57
25
40
25
42
25
47
33
20
20
Sweden
34
EUROPE
41
51
47
43
46
59
42
58
59
64
42
68
56
47
51
U.S.
55
65
64
58
62
72
56
1
1
1
45
65
42
57
44
35
17
Denmark
25
22
1
2758
43
48
54
48
68
46
* Some figures missing because of technical difficulties with the Finnish data file.
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Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study
59
45
33
42
54
35
54
35
53
50879
32
0
41
23
64
47
43
18
752598
Prayer
Y
Think about the meaning
and purpose in life
Sometimes
39
41

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Table 4
PERCENTAGE OF PERSONS REPORTING ANY PSYCHIC EXPERIENCE BY MARITAL STATUS
Single
Married
Living as
Married
Separated
Divorced
Widowed
France
46
47
51
56
63
56
Italy
65
54
60
74
85
75
Spain
33
30
46
46
50
41
Belgium
33
24
27
42
55
44
Great Britain
41
42
58
66
51
65
West Germany
41
48
55
63
49
60
Holland
39
32
41
41
47
32
Ireland
25
33
32
29
32
Denmark
26
23
31
27
39
27
Finland
43
43
47
64
67
Iceland
41
54
50
71
59
63
Norway
21
23
24
20
46
28
Sweden
37
28
25
29
48
43
EUROPE
46
43
52
60
53
58
U.S.
60
57
71
81
70
68
married, separated, divorced or widowed. The same effect is evident in
regard to contact with the dead, and also -- but to a lesser extent-for
clairvoyance.
Psychological Well-Being
The Bradburn Affect Scale was devised as a measure of psychological
. well-being and has been widely used by sociologists for that purpose
(Bradburn, 1969). It consists of 10 items, all of which were included in
o the EVSSG questionnaire. For the wording of the scale, see Appendix A.
Three indicators are calculated: one positive, one negative, and one that is
the balance of the two. The positive indicator is found by adding the
number of positive feelings reported: being particularly excited or inter-
Wested in something, being proud because someone complimented you,
being pleased about having accomplished something, feeling that life is
wonderful, and feeling that life is going your way. The negative indicator
Mis found by adding the items of feeling restless, lonely, bored, depressed,
Sor upset.
The balance indicator, namely, the value that is obtained when the
anumber of reported negative feelings is subtracted from the number of
positive feelings, is considered a fair indicator of psychological well-
-being, rather than the values of positive and negative indicators taken sep-
garately. We calculated the Kendall tau (T) correlation between the Brad-
burn Affect Scale and the three types of psychic experiences. In Europe it
was - . 01 for telepathy and - . 03 for both clairvoyance and contact with
the dead, and - . 02 for all psi experiences combined. In the U.S. the
correlation was .05 for telepathy, - . 02 for clairvoyance, -. 03 for con-
Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study
tact with the dead, and .02 for reporting any experience. The psychics
evidently enjoy neither more nor less psychological well-being than the
nonpsychics.
An examination of the subscales on negative feelings among Europeans
showed that 12% of those who express no negative feeling report telep-
athy, 24% of those expressing one negative feeling report telepathy, and
there follows a gradual but steady increase up to 44% of those reporting
telepathy who experience all five negative feelings in the Bradburn Scale.
The same trend is found in the U.S. sample. The percentage of persons
reporting telepathy rises steadily from 33% reporting no negative feelgg
to 64% reporting all the negative feelings. The trend is about similar or
contact with the dead, but it is less noticeable for clairvoyance.
For all the psychic experiences combined, this trend is steady for beh
Europe and the U.S. In Europe, the rise is from 37% for no negatge
feeling to 61% for them all. In the U.S., reporting of any psychic expeg-
ences increases steadily from 52% among those experiencing no negative
feeling to 89% among those who experience all the negative feelings.
Among the Europeans who report no positive feeling, only 24% clairga
telepathic experience. There is gradual and steady increase up to 44%
among those who report all five positive feelings. This finding is reps-
cated in the U.S. data. The more that people report positive feelings, the
more likely they are to report telepathic experiences. The increase risys
steadily from 33% to 64%. The same trend-to a lesser extent-is found
for clairvoyance and contact with the dead. With the three items com-
bined, there is a steady increase with increased affect from 42% to 69% of
the persons reporting at least one or more psychic experiences.
We combined the positive and negative subscales by adding the;
scores, thus creating a new variable that we called the sum of affec
which we correlated with the Greeley items. (See our discussion of ro
sponse bias in Appendix B.) The sum of affect correlated significante
with telepathy in all countries as can be seen in Table 6. For Europe as @
whole, the Kendall correlation coefficient is . 19, and for the U.S. it is .2&3
For clairvoyance and contact with the dead, the coefficients were lowe
but significant. For any psychic experience, the correlation was .20 for
Europe and .29 for the U.S.
To find out to what extent the reporting of psychic experiences can be
predicted from other variables in this study (biographical data, attitudes
and values), regression analysis was carried out for each of the countries
with the number of psychic experiences as the dependent variable and
representative subset of other variables as independent variables. The
same analysis was run for Europe as a whole.
The result (see Table 7) is that the number of psychic experiences can
be predicted only to a limited extent. The percentage of the variance that
can be explained ranges from 6% in Spain to 23% in Italy. Although there
is substantial variation between nations regarding which variables play the
most important role, several are often found among the five best pre-
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Table 5
PERCENTAGE OF PERSONS REPORTING ANY PSYCHIC EXPERIENCE BY NUMBER OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FEELINGS ON THE BRADBURN SCALE
Positive Affect
2
3
4
5
0
1
Negative Affect
2
3
4
5
0
-
47
49
51
56
53
France
40
53
52
69
54
68
Italy
47
62
26
36
41
33
44
Spain
23
33
32
38
54
54
Belgium
35
47
50
55
58
55
Great Britain
43
41
55
54
58
West Germany
27
37
42
47
45
18
30
36
23
27
31
32
41
Holland
24
35
36
34
45
8
21
25
28
25
38
Ireland
22
31
41
40
50
57
40
50
51
57
67
42
Finland
51
56
51
57
58
32
46
45
52
60
0
Iceland
19
27
33
26
29
33
21
20
17
20
28
32
Norway
29
32
42
48
55
1
Sweden
37
47
53
56
59
61
34
43
46
47
52
53
EUROPE
U.S.
52
58
64
69
77
89
42
45
54
54
43
38
52
39
39
48
48
46
47
40
36
40
Denmark
26
34
41
35
888787855 9
40
56
58
64
76
68
67
75
30
24
29
35
40
36
32
39
31
15
27
29
27
27
33
40
35
29
West Germany
Great Britain
Belgium
Spain
Italy
France
.28 **
.19 **
.13 **
.10 **
.15 **
.15 **
.14 **
.17 **
.19 **
.17 **
.20 **
.17 **
.11 **
.27 **
.16 **
Telepathy
.13 **
.10 **
.09 **
.12 **
.11 **
.07 **
.07 **
.01
.05 **
.13 **
.10 **
.28 **
.10 **
Clairvoyance
.15 **
.09 **
.07 **
.08 **
.15 **
.10 **
.01
.09 **
.04 **
.03*
.11 **
.11 **
.04 **
.28 **
.12 **
the dead
Contact with
.29 ***
.20 **
.13 **
.14*
.14 **
.19*
.17 **
.19 **
.18 **
.11*
.21*5
.21*
.15*$?
.32 **
.20 **
Experience
KENDALL TAU CORRELATION BETWEEN SUM OF AFFECT AND TELEPATHY,
Table 6
Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study
dicting variables. Sum of affect occurs in 12 of the 13 analyses for indy
vidual countries. The second most prevalent variable is belief in reincarna-
tion (V315), which occurs in 10 of 13 analyses. The response-bias vari
able occurs in 7 analyses and is the second best predictor in the combine
European data. More details about this variable, which consists of the sun
of 50 variables associated with reporter bias, can be found in Appendix
U.S.
EUROPE
Sweden
Norway
Iceland
Finland
Denmark
Ireland
Holland
* p < . 05 (two-tailed)
** p <. 01 (two-tailed)
DISCUSSION
Sixty percent of the American sample reported one or more of the psy-
chic experiences assessed by the items originally designed by Greeley. For
Europeans, the figure was 46% when the samples had been weighted ac
percentages. Based as they are on large representative national samples,
they allow us to infer that perhaps as many as 145 million Americans and
over 100 million Western Europeans report at least one of the three kinds
of psychic experiences as defined in the survey. When interpreting these
data, we must keep in mind their limitations. We are dealing with reported
cording to the size of the national populations. These are relatively high
CLAIRVOYANCE, CONTACT WITH THE DEAD AND ANY EXPERIENCE
.01
.02
.
Any
157
67
69
52
23
38
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The fourth best variable is sex, with four occurrences. There follow thre
variables each with three occurrences. These are broken versus unbroken
marital relationships, belief in some sort of spirit or life force (as opposed!
to belief in a personal god, no belief in any sort of spirit, god, or life
force, and not knowing what to think about such matters), and spending
some moments in prayer (V319).
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Table 7
RESULTS OF REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR EACH COUNTRY
Country
% of variance
explained
Var 1
Var 2
Var 3
Var 4
Var 5
France
13
NEGAFF
V315
RBV
BALAFF
SEX
Italy
23
SUMAFF
RBV
BROKEN
WORKRLZ
V319
Spain
6
V315
V253
SELFJUS
SUMAFF
V317
Belgium
20
V317
SUMAFF
V315
SPIRLIF
RBV
Great Britain
16
V315
V211
AGE
SPIRLIF
SUMAFF
West Germany
20
AGE
V315
TRADFAM
V319
SEX
Holland
15
RBV
SUMAFF
SPIRLIF
V253
V315
Ireland
13
SUMAFF
V311
RBV
CONFINS
TRADRLG
Denmark
13
V315
RBV
SUMAFF
V253
SOCACT
Iceland
18
V253
POSAFF
V315
V319
V449
Norway
8
V253
SUMAFF
SEX
V156
V233
Sweden
21
V315
SHAPRTN
V314
SUMAFF
SEX
EUROPE
13
SUMAFF
RBV
V315
SPIRLIF
V319
U.S.
16
SUMAFF
V315
BROKEN
SOCACT
RBV
NOTE: Regression analysis was run with number of psychic experiences as the dependent variable and a
representative subset of other variables as independent, which were stepwise included. Var 1 indicates the
variable that best predicts the number of psychic experiences reported, Var 2 is second best, etc.
BALAFF balance of affect on the Bradburn Scale
BROKEN marital status
CONFINS confidence in institutions
NEGAFF negative affect
POSAFF positive affect
RBV response bias
SELFJUS justifying minor immoral acts (tax evasion, lying, etc.)
SHAPRTN sharing attitudes with partner
SOCACT take part in social activities
SPIRLIF belief in some sort of spirit or life force
SUMAFF sum of affect on the Bradburn Scale
TRADFAM traditional attitude to family
TRADRLG traditional religious views
V156 state of health
V211 having choice and control over one's life
V233 taking pride in one's work
V253 thinking about the meaning and purpose of life
V311 belief in the devil
V315 belief in reincarnation
V314 belief in sin
V317 God important in one's life
V319 take some moments for prayer, mediation etc.
V449 take interest in politics
WORKRLZ finding realization in one's work
experiences only, and the phrasing of the questions is not ideal for as-
sessing potentially paranormal experiences. It should, however, not be
unreasonable to estimate that the figures roughly indicate the frequency
with which people in the samples have interpreted some personal experi-
ences as paranormal in nature.
The most outstanding finding is the national differences in reporting
every kind of psychic experience. Taking the extremes, we find that
Americans report telepathic experiences 3.6 times more often than the
Danes (54% vs. 15%), Italians report clairvoyance 5.6 times more often
Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study
159
than Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swedes (39% vs. 7%), and Icelanders
report contact with the dead 4.5 times more often than the Norwegians
(41% vs. 9%). Americans and Italians, whom we find to be the most
"psychic" nations in this survey, are 2.5 times more likely to report any
psychic experiences than are the least "psychic" Danes (60% vs. 24%).
Before Haraldsson started this project (Houtkooper joined it at a later
stage) and calculated the results, he did not state any explicit hypotheses,
but based on the results from earlier surveys, he expected the percentages
of reported experiences to be highest for the U.S. and Iceland, with Great
Britain, Italy, and Germany nearby. He also expected Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden to be among the least "psychic." As far as these countas
are concerned, the findings come as no surprise. What remains puzzlig,
however, is the finding that so many French people report psychic expesi-
ences and that they report them slightly more frequently than the British.
Our surprise probably reflects our ignorance of the French people. Slight
differences in the translation of the items may also affect the results.
Nationality emerges as a very powerful factor indeed, and this evofes
many questions. What is the active ingredient that causes the national
ferences? Is it in the genes? Is it due to differences in dominant philosophy
or life styles? Or is it due to the degree of favorable coverage by press and
TV? McClenon's (1982) survey of elite scientists in the U.S. showed toat
they get most of their knowledge of psychic phenomena and research from
popular sources, not from scientific publications. This clearly reveals the
powerful effect of the popular media. An important question is: Whatif
any, impact does the quantity and quality of research conducted and pub-
lished have on the various nations surveyed? Our findings open up many
questions.
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There is a notable difference between France and Great Britain in Be
reporting of clairvoyance. A total of 24% report it in France, but only 1450
report it in Britain, whereas the figure for telepathy is about equal for b&h
countries. As early as around the turn of the century, French researchers
tended to give more support to the clairvoyance hypothesis, whereas the
British overwhelmingly favored telepathy as a leading explanation of psy-
chic phenomena. Perhaps these differing conceptions of early French and
British researchers still exist among the general populations of the couf-
tries involved. Or, were the conceptions of those researchers simply ro-
flections of the dominating views of the populations of which they were a
part?
In a representative survey of psychic experiences conducted in Iceland
in the mid-1970s, 31% reported experience of the dead (Haraldsson, 1978.
1985). Why do we now find an increase up to 41%? It is possible that the
higher figure is due to very slight differences in the wording of the ques-
tions. The results of Haraldsson's survey were widely publicized in Ice-
land when they were released to the media (Haraldsson, 1975), and this
may well have made people more ready to report contact with the dead
when they knew that almost every third person had done so. A British
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Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research
survey among widows and widowers revealed that many of those who
report experiences of encounters with the dead are reluctant to do so for
fear of ridicule (Rees, 1971).
The fact that Icelanders top the list in regard to contact with the dead
calls for some discussion. It brings to mind some other findings of Har-
aldsson's 1975 survey in that country. It was noteworthy that about every
third respondent (32%) had attended mediumistic séances. For the age
bracket 50-59, the figure rose to 47% and was even a surprising 29% for
the college-educated group. Furthermore, it was found that respondents
expressed a relatively strong belief in communication with the dead at
séances, with 21% being certain of such communication and a further 21%
thinking it likely, as opposed to 11% who thought it impossible or un-
likely. Concerning the high figure of 30% of Americans reporting contact
with the dead in the present survey, we should recall the relevant fact that
the United States was the soil from which spiritualism grew and spread to
other countries.
In the U.S., Greeley (1987) has found a steady increase of reports of
contact with the dead: 27% in 1973, 30% in 1981, and exceeding even
Iceland in 1987 with 42%. (See Table 1.) Greeley interprets this increase
as an indication of increased readiness to admit experiences of contact
with the dead. He also suggests that the writings of actress Shirley Ma-
icLaine and the wide publicity she has received may have affected that
-change.
Many more "psychics" are found among women than among men. The
results concerning reporting some psychic experience indicate that in all
¿countries but Holland many more psychics are found among women than
among men. Further, this sex difference is more prominent for contact
with the dead and telepathy than for clairvoyance. Why? Experiences of
¿telepathy and contact with the dead involve contact with persons, whereas
clairvoyance concerns perceptions of events. Rightly or wrongly, women
"are often believed to be more person-oriented than men. If this old stereo-
Hype is true, it would seem reasonable to expect more women to report
Telepathic experiences (with living and dead) and for men to report rela-
@ively more clairvoyant experiences, which is what the results indicated.
"However, this effect of sex is very slight: Reporting some psychic experi-
@nce correlated only .08 with sex in Europe and .11 in the U.S., both
"Coefficients being significant because of huge sample sizes.
A notable absence in the data is a relationship with age, except for a
@light increase in experiences of contact with the dead.
_ In the U.S. as well as in Europe, education has no effect on whether
eople report psychic experiences. It should be mentioned, however, that
the data have the limitation that we cannot distinguish between those who
hold the European "student" examination or a U.S. college degree and
those who hold higher university degrees. Findings by McClenon (1982)
indicate that this distinction may be more important than the traditional
classification of formal education as primary, secondary, and college. Be
161
1
Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study
that as it may, there is no evidence in the results for the "deficiency syn-
drome," that is, that psychic experiences tend to be reported because of
lack of education.
Rather striking are the differences in reporting psychic experiences as
regards marital status (see Table 4). The single and married are less likely
to report psychic experiences than those living in what we termed "broken
relationships" (those living as married, separated, divorced, or widowed).
Are psychics more likely than nonpsychics to have marital difficulties?cos
an unstable or broken relationship psi-conducive? Are people who
under emotional strain that may accompany broken relationships mo
likely to have psychic experiences? Or do people in such relationships
have a greater need for psychic experiences? Or-taking a more skepti@
approach-do those living as married, separated, divorced, or widowel
more often "feel as though" or imagine that they have psychic exper
ences? The data give no answers to these questions.
Still more striking is the finding that the "psychics" report significant
more positive as well as negative feelings and emotions than the nonpsg
chics, yet the "psychics" enjoy neither higher nor lower psychological
well-being (as measured by the Bradburn Scale) than the rest of the pop?
lation. This is in line with what Greeley (1975) found in his first U.S.
survey. What conclusions can be drawn from the much more frequeff
simultaneous presence of both positive and negative feelings ("sum
affect") among the psychics? Could this effect be due to a general re-
sponse bias of the yes/no-sayer type because all the items of the Bradburn
Scale are so worded that the respondent is asked if he or she has had thar
particular feeling/experience and then is requested to respond with a yes &
no? Analyses reveal that the findings are not due to response bias. A des
tailed statistical analysis of this problem is given in Appendix B.
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Are the psychics more emotionally unstable? Apparently people are
more likely to report psi experiences when experiencing either very diffit
cult or very pleasant times. Are the psychics more sensitive to their envia
ronment and hence experience more negative as well as positive feelings?
We can surmise that they are more sensitive, and they probably have
richer emotional lives and react emotionally more strongly to events
around them than do the nonpsychics.
"Approved For Release 2008/6:
The Human Values Study contains a great number of variables from
variety of highly different domains. Nationality is evidently the strongest
factor determining the frequency of the reporting of psychic experiences,
followed by the "sum of affect." In addition to the factors already men-
tioned in this discussion, it is of interest that regression analyses revealed
three other variables from the religious domain that affect the frequency of
reporting psi experiences: namely, belief in reincarnation, belief in some
sort of spirit or life force, and taking moments for prayer or meditation.
This result is in line with earlier findings (Haraldsson, 1981; Tobacyk &
Milford, 1983) that show some religious variables to be mildly but signifi-
cantly related to belief in psychic phenomena in general.
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Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research
The Human Values Survey was repeated in 1990 in all the countries of
Western Europe and a number of countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, and
the Americas. To our disappointment, the EVSSG committee decided to
drop the Greeley items from the new questionnaire.
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REFERENCES
ABRAMS, M., GERARD, D., & TIMMS, N. (EDS.). (1985). Values and
Social Change in Britain. London: Macmillan.
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(Mimeographed.)
BRADBURN, N. M. (1969). The Structure of Psychological Well-Being.
Chicago, IL: Aldine.
EUROPEAN VALUE SYSTEMS STUDY GROUP. (1987). Information Bulletin
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GALLUP INTERNATIONAL (EUROPEAN VALUE SYSTEMS STUDY GROUP).
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GALLUP MARKEDSANALYSE. (1957, August). Befolknings Indstilling til
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GREELEY, A. M. (1975). The Sociology of the Paranormal: A Reconnais-
sance. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
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HARALDSSON, E. (1975). Könnun a dulrænni reynslu, vidhorfum til
dulrænna fyrirbæra o.fl. Hand-out given to Icelandic media, June 6.
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Bokaforlagid Saga.
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IMU [INSTITUTET FÖR MARKNADSUNDERSÖKNINGAR]. (1980, June). Rap-
port över en Undersökning ang "Annorlunda Upplevelser" i Ans-
lutning till Konsumentindex vecka 21, 1980. Stockholm, Sweden: The
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MCCLENON, J. (1982). A survey of elite scientists: Their attitudes toward
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MCCREADY, W. C., & GREELEY, A. M. (1976). The Ultimate Values of
the American Population. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
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Faculty of Social Science
University of Iceland
101 Reykjavik, Iceland
Houtkooper Software Engineer
De Maalkom 7
1191 LP Ouderkerk ald Amstel
The Netherlands
APPENDIX A
The Bradburn Affect Balance Scale
We are interested in the way people are feeling these days. During the past
few weeks, did you ever feel:
Yes
No
Particularly excited or interested in something
So restless you couldn't sit long in a chair
Proud because someone had complimented you
on something you had done
Very lonely or remote from other people
Pleased about having accomplished something
Bored
On top of the world/feeling that life is wonderful
Depressed or very unhappy
That things are going your way
Upset because somebody criticized you
APPENDIX B
Response Bias
The finding of a correlation between the sum-of-affect variable from the
Bradburn Scale items and reported psychic experiences has caused some
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164
Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research
concern about its being explainable by response bias. In this case, re-
sponse bias would be defined as the tendency to respond affirmatively on
questions asking whether something applies to the subject or not. Subjects
who possess this tendency to a large degree are called "reporters,"
whereas those who respond generally negatively to such questions are
called "nonreporters." Of course, it is important for the interpretation of a
correlation to know whether it can be regarded as due to a general effect or
to the specific content of the questions whose responses show this correla-
tion.
To decide this issue, we are fortunate in having a sizeable collection of
questions available. We were able to find a set of 50 questions that asked
for responses that could be regarded as distinguishing "reporters" from
"nonreporters," if such a distinction has any grounds. The questions are
found in various parts of the questionnaire so that specific meaning gets
diffused when the set is treated as a whole. To obtain a variable to repre-
sent response bias, in the set of 50 questions we counted all responses of
"yes," "very," "often," or where a specific item was marked as appli-
cable to the subject. This provided the rather diffuse variable representing
response bias needed to distinguish between our finding being due to a
specific, rather than a diffuse, effect.
The response-bias variable (RBV) has been correlated with both sum of
affect (SUMAFF) and the reporting of one or more psychic experiences
(Any Exp). This allows the calculation of a partial correlation coefficient
in which the correlation is controlled for the effect of a third variable,
RBV, in this case. The results are shown in Table 8 for Europe combined
and for the U.S.
The conclusion is that response bias plays a negligible role in the corre-
lation and does not explain the high positive and negative affect scores and
sum of affect of those who respond affirmatively to the three Greeley
items. The regression analyses (see Table 7) corroborate this conclusion.
Table 8
INFLUENCE OF RESPONSE BIAS ON THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN ANY PSYCHIC
EXPERIENCES AND BRADBURN'S SUM OF AFFECTS
Any Exp
×
SUMAFF
SUMAFF
×
Any Exp
×
RBV
Any Exp
×
SUMAFF
controlled
Country
RBV
for RBV
Europe
.04
.15
.19
.19
U.S.
.03
12
.22
.22
Note: Kendall rank correlation coefficients and Kendall rank partial coefficient (last
column) are given.
Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study
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Though part of the variance in "Number of Psychic Experiences" is ex-
plained by the RBV, another larger part of it is explained by SUMAFF.
A better way to detect response bias is by including items that are asked
twice, but in an opposite sense, so that an affirmative response in one
instance should correspond with a negation in the other. Lack of consis-
tency then reveals response bias. Because no items of this sort were in-
cluded in the questionnaire used in the Human Values Survey, we could
not perform this analysis.
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