Lucafò Chiara, Ceccato Irene, Malatesta Gianluca, Palumbo Rocco, Mammarella Nicola, Di Domenico Alberto, Tommasi Luca, Prete Giulia
Department of Psychology, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
BJPsych Open. 2025 Jul 22;11(4):e154. doi: 10.1192/bjo.2025.10775.
Auditory hallucinations (hearing voices in the absence of physical stimuli) are present in clinical conditions, but they are also experienced less frequently by healthy individuals. In the non-clinical population, auditory hallucinations are described more often as positive and not intrusive; indeed, they have received less attention.
The present study explores the phenomenology of non-clinical auditory hallucinations and their possible relationship with religiosity.
Starting from previous findings suggesting that non-clinical auditory hallucinations are often described as a gift or a way to be connected with 'someone else', we administered standardised questionnaires to quantify proneness to experiencing auditory hallucinations, religiosity and anxiety/depression scores.
Regression analysis carried out using an auditory hallucinations, index as the dependent variable on a final sample of 680 responders revealed that a total of 31% of the variance was explained by a five-steps model including demographic characteristics (i.e. being young, a woman and a non-believer) and negative (e.g. being afraid of otherworldly punishments) and positive (e.g. believing in benevolent supernatural forces) components of religiosity, anxiety and depression. Crucially, compared with believers, non-believers revealed higher scores in depression, anxiety and in a specific questionnaire measuring proneness to auditory hallucinations.
Results suggests that religiosity acts as a potential protective factor for proneness to paranormal experiences, but a complex relationship emerges between religious beliefs, mood alterations and unusual experiences.
幻听（即在没有物理刺激的情况下听到声音）在临床疾病中存在，但健康个体也较少出现这种情况。在非临床人群中，幻听更多地被描述为积极且不具侵扰性；事实上，它们受到的关注较少。
本研究探讨非临床幻听的现象学及其与宗教信仰的可能关系。
基于先前的研究结果表明非临床幻听常被描述为一种天赋或与“他人”建立联系的方式，我们发放标准化问卷以量化幻听倾向、宗教信仰以及焦虑/抑郁得分。
在680名应答者的最终样本中，以幻听指数作为因变量进行回归分析，结果显示，一个包含人口统计学特征（即年轻、女性且无宗教信仰）以及宗教信仰、焦虑和抑郁的消极（如害怕超自然惩罚）和积极（如相信仁慈的超自然力量）成分的五步模型解释了31%的方差。至关重要的是，与有宗教信仰者相比，无宗教信仰者在抑郁、焦虑以及一份测量幻听倾向的特定问卷中的得分更高。
结果表明宗教信仰是幻听倾向的潜在保护因素，但宗教信仰、情绪变化和异常体验之间呈现出复杂的关系。
