RT Article
T1 Haunted people syndrome revisited: empirical parallels between subjective paranormal episodes and group-stalking accounts
JF Mental health, religion & culture
VO 23
IS 7
SP 532
OP 549
A1 Lange, Rense
A1 Houran, James
A1 Sheridan, Lorraine
A1 Dagnall, Neil
A1 Drinkwater, Kenneth
A1 O'Keeffe, Ciaran
A1 Laythe, Brian
LA English
PB Taylor & Francis
YR 2020
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1839006579
AB Research suggests a Haunted People Syndrome (HP-S) is defined by the recurrent perception of anomalous subjective and objective events. Occurrences are traditionally attributed to supernatural agencies, but we argue that such interpretations have morphed into themes of "surveillance and stalking" in group-stalking reports. We tested a series of related hypotheses by re-analyzing survey data from the 2015 Sheridan and James study to explore statistical patterns in "delusional" group-stalking accounts (N=128) versus"non-delusional" (control) accounts of lone-culprit stalking (N=128). As expected, we found that (i) account types had different Rasch hierachies, (ii) the Rasch hierarchy of group-stalking experiences showed a robust unidimensional model, and (iii) this group-stalking hierarchy correlated significantly with spontanous "ghost" experiences. However, we found no clear evidence for "event clustering" that might signify contagious processes in symptom perception. Findings support the viability of the HP-S construct and the idea that experiences of group-stalking and haunts share common sources.
K1 Delusions
K1 Rasch scaling
K1 encounter experiences
K1 Ghosts
K1 group-stalking
K1 syndrome
DO 10.1080/13674676.2020.1767552