1996 00 00 Psychological Inquiry - Vol 7 No 2 - Banaji

Magazine Overview

Title: Psychological Inquiry
Issue: Vol. 7, No. 2
Date: 1996
Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Country: United States
Language: English

This issue features a commentary titled "The Ordinary Nature of Alien Abduction Memories" by Mahzarin R. Banaji and John F. Kihlstrom of Yale University. The commentary discusses the phenomenon of alien abduction reports and memories, offering a psychological perspective that frames them as "delusions" or products of an "effort after meaning" to explain anomalous experiences.

Commentary: The Ordinary Nature of Alien Abduction Memories

The authors begin by referencing the "June bug" incident of 1962, where an outbreak of illness at a manufacturing plant was attributed to hysterical contagion. They draw a parallel between this incident and the phenomenon of alien abduction memories, suggesting that both involve the creation of shared realities and beliefs. They question why hundreds or thousands of people claim abduction experiences and why respected scholars take these reports seriously as objective reality.

Banaji and Kihlstrom agree with the target article's authors, Newman and Baumeister, that the literal accuracy of these reports is doubtful. They concur with the analysis of the reconstructive nature of memory and the risks associated with using hypnosis to refresh memory, citing research on suggestion, rehearsal, and time delay in memory distortion. However, they emphasize that less is known about the interplay of social, political, and cultural factors that shape these distorted memories.

Regarding the motivational aspect, Newman and Baumeister suggest a link to sadomasochism as a desire to escape self-awareness. Banaji and Kihlstrom find this less convincing, stating that more evidence is needed to support the idea that alien abductees have pre-existing sadomasochistic tendencies or have recently suffered setbacks impacting their self-image. They propose an alternative cognitive-motivational hypothesis: that abduction memories are delusions, defined as false but highly valued beliefs about oneself.

They explain that delusions are natural byproducts of attempts to explain unusual events, drawing on the ideas of Jaspers and Reed. According to Reed, an awareness of a change in significance stimulates attempts to explain it, using the individual's knowledge and inferential processes. Maher's work, based on attribution theory, outlines a sequence for delusion formation: an unusual perceptual experience, the conclusion of personal significance, anxiety, explanation via normal intellectual processes, anxiety reduction, and persistence of the explanation.

Banaji and Kihlstrom apply social-cognitive research on normative inference rules to anomalous experiences that can lead to UFO abduction reports. They list five common experiences associated with such reports, based on a Roper Organization survey: waking up paralyzed with a strange presence, experiencing lost time with no memory, feeling like flying, seeing unusual lights, and finding puzzling scars without knowing how they were acquired. While most people might dismiss these, for some, they are frightening and anomalous, prompting a search for explanation.

These experiences are characterized by high distinctiveness and low consistency and consensus, leading individuals to seek explanations involving both themselves and the environment. The self-other difference in attribution and heuristics like representativeness (where causes resemble effects) contribute to this. The authors note that the media attention given to UFO abductions, particularly through works like Strieber's "Communion" and Mack's "Abduction," makes UFOs a readily available explanation for anomalous experiences. They also mention "Michelle Remembers" and the "satanic ritual abuse" epidemic as similar phenomena driven by publicized accounts.

The authors question Newman and Baumeister's linking of UFO abductions to sadomasochism, suggesting that more mundane explanations are likely. They argue that the prevalence of UFO abduction phenomena in the United States and the United Kingdom, rather than globally, points away from a universal explanation like sadomasochism. They propose that the sexual component might be related to repressed sexual matters, and moments of uncertainty about physical location could provide an opportunity for thoughts about sex and sexuality.

Ultimately, Banaji and Kihlstrom emphasize that the significance of Newman and Baumeister's article lies not in their specific explanation but in drawing attention to a class of phenomena from which psychologists can learn a great deal about how humans attribute cause, weave narratives, and are influenced by social processes, memory contagion, and implicit theories of self and others.

References

The issue includes an extensive list of references, citing works on human inference, social psychology, memory, delusions, hypnosis, UFO abductions, and related topics. Key references include works by Baker, Bartlett, Bryan, Jacobs, Jaspers, Kelley, Kerckhoff, Kihlstrom, Mack, Maher, Nisbett, Padzer, Reed, Sherman, Strieber, and Zimbardo.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The recurring theme is the psychological and social construction of belief and memory, particularly in the context of anomalous experiences like alien abductions. The commentary suggests that these phenomena are not necessarily evidence of objective reality but rather are shaped by cognitive biases, social influence, and the human need to explain the unexplained. The editorial stance, as presented in this commentary, is to approach such phenomena with scientific inquiry, seeking naturalistic explanations and demystifying them through social-psychological analysis, rather than dismissing them as mere credulity or mass hysteria.