Post-traumatic stress disorder, suggestibility, and dissociation related to alleged alien abductions

Abstract

Objectives: Thousands of people throughout the world are convinced that they have been abducted by aliens. We aimed to assess the emotional reaction to such an implausible event and propose some explanations alternative to severe psychopathology.

Methods: A total of 19 individuals who reported memories of having been abducted by aliens were compared to a control group of 32 participants. We employed a battery of tests measuring post-traumatic stress disorder, suggestibility, and dissociation within all participants.

Results: The abductee group showed higher scores in measures of post-traumatic stress disorders and dissociation, but lower in suggestibility. Nevertheless, these differences were statistically significant only in suggestibility.

Conclusions: The emotional reaction to memories of an implausible experience can be similar to an individual's response to a genuinely traumatic event. Dissociation might be involved in the clarification of some cases. Explanations alternative to psychosis for these testimonies are proposed.

Keywords: PTSD; alien abduction; false memory; sleep paralysis; suggestibility.