Wednesday, April 15

People do pay attention to their dreams. More so in countries like South Korea and India, but here in the U.S., too.

They are perceived as being far more meaningful than consciously imagining an event, or even expert advice. Details of a study on how seriously people take their dreams were reported in this month’s issue of the APA Monitor on Psychology. The article was based on a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, another publication of the American Psychological Association.

Researchers found that in the U.S., 56 percent believe dreams reveal hidden truths. That climbs to 65 percent in South Korea and 74 percent in India. But more interesting was the conclusion that dreams influence decision making.

They asked 182 commuters in Boston which would be more likely to change their air travel plans: a government warning about a possible terrorist attack; finding out that a plane crash occurred on their regular route; consciously imagining a crash; or dreaming about a plane crash. Most respondents said the dream would just as unsettling as hearing about a real crash, and have a bigger impact than a government warning.

Perhaps even more interesting is that 68 percent of people participating in another study believe that dreams predict the future. But one of the researchers, Carey Morewedge, PhD, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, thinks that’s a result of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I don’t find it terribly surprising that people view their own dreams through selective lenses. For example, a group was asked about God speaking to them in a dream. They were more likely to take it to heart if God suggested that they travel the earth; far less likely if they were told to go work in a leper colony.

If you’re interested, you can find the original study and analysis by clicking here.