A questionnaire survey of interpretation of precognitive folklore among female students

Abstract

Objective : The author investigated interpretation of various spontaneous cases of precognition which were widespread among people. Method : Using an original questionnaire about 30 factious precognitive stories which were similar to actual samples, female students of a college, junior college and vocational college (18-22 years old, N=345) responded interpretation (scoring of four typical categories, i.e. fiction, psychiatric symptom, accidental coincidence and paranormal phenomena, in condition that sum of them are 100) and/or popularity of the stories. Results : These stories were interpreted differently according to the precognitive style and the background condition. Frequency of the precognition correlated positively to the interpretation of accidental coincidence, and so negatively to the explanation of fiction and psychiatric symptom. Popularity of the stories contributed to the paranormal scores. Conclusions : Various types of precognitive stories had specific profiles of interpretation.