Half a century ago, during the cold war, the social psychologist Leon Festinger and his colleagues studied a millennial sect who believed that the earth was going to be destroyed, but that they would be saved by extra-terrestrials. The book by Susan Clancy deals, in lively semi-popular fashion, with a similar topic. It opens with a refreshingly candid account of how she came to embark on such unusual research. She presents extracts from interviews with people of varying backgrounds who shared a set of — to us — weird beliefs. For instance, a number of them were convinced that they had been taken aboard a space ship where they became the objects of sexual or medical experimentation.

The question asked is how it is possible for 21st-century Americans to have such strange thoughts. Clancy's main approach was connected with her special interest in 'false memories', a phenomenon extensively investigated in relation to alleged child sex abuse. Such memories were often elicited by psychiatrists or other therapists, and similarly she found that most of her 'abduction' cases had 'either sought out or fell into the hands of an abduction researcher [who was a believer] or therapist.' These 'experts' apparently tended to reinforce the beliefs, if not actually shaping them. What had originally prompted the people interviewed to seek further enlightenment or help were often alarming night-time experiences, interpreted by them as being paranormal. Clancy shows that they are likely to have been incidents of  a condition known as 'sleep paralysis' when the transition from sleep  to waking  gets out of phase; motor output being  temporarily inhibited, and hallucinatory experiences may occur. One must also ask why the contents of the resulting beliefs have to do with aliens, and the author's answer, documented in some detail, is that alien abduction is a common theme in American literature, film, and television.

            All these are positive contributions, but psychologists will regret that in her effort to make the work widely accessible, Clancy has failed to provide even some basic information about her research. For example, it is only from the (separate) publisher's blurb that one learns that she studied twenty believers in the laboratory, interviewed a dozen in their homes or by phone, and 'roughly' 25 more at conferences — presumably conferences consisting of believers. It is claimed, on rather slender evidence, that these people are not crazy but have 'schizotypical' personalities. They may not be crazy, but the reports indicate that a number of them were severely disturbed. It is also irritating that Clancy pontificates a lot about 'science', remarking for instance with heavy humour that 'Occam's Razor  . . . did not come naturally to these people'. Thereby the impression may be created that scientists are immune to irrationality. Yet in the late 19^th century, when spiritualism was popular in British society, the noted physicist William Crookes became attracted to it after the death of his brother. When he passed an electric current through gases in a vacuum a ghostly glow appeared, and he announced that he had produced ectoplasm!

            Perhaps it is unfair to criticize in this way a book that makes no pretence to be an academic research report, and seeks to appeal to a general readership. As noted above, Clancy's more technical interpretations are persuasive, and her case histories will be fascinating for both academic and lay readers.

© 2007 Gustav Jahoda

Gustav Jahoda, Ph.D. is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. His main fields of interest are cross-cultural and social psychology, especially the development of social cognition. He is the author of  'A History of Social Psychology' (in press, Cambridge University Press).

Categories: Psychology