Do dreams reveal hidden truths or provide glimpses into the future? A surprisingly large percentage of people from cultures around the world say the answer is yes.

The findings come from a review of responses to six surveys conducted around the world, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In a survey of 149 university students in the US, for example, a sizeable majority reported that they believe dreams reveal hidden truths about themselves and the world. Another survey, this one conducted at a Boston train station, found that people were more likely to change their travel plans after dreaming about a plane crash than they were if the government raised the national threat level to orange, indicating a high risk of terrorist attack.

People tend to believe dreams that reinforce pre-existing beliefs, says Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University and lead author of the review paper. For example, people who believe in God, Morewedge found, were more likely to consider any dream in which God spoke to them to be meaningful. Agnostics, in contrast, took a more self-interested view. They considered dreams in which God spoke “to be more meaningful when God commanded them to take a pleasant vacation than when God commanded them to engage in self-sacrifice.”

© 2009 PDQhealth

Tags: dreams