The role of schizotypy, mental imagery, and fantasy proneness in hallucinatory reports of undergraduate students

Using the White Christmas task, we examined in a sample of undergraduate students (N=111) individual differences between participants who reported “hallucinatory experiences” and those who did not. For this purpose, we used individual difference measures tapping the following constructs: schizotypy, predisposition to hallucinate, mental imagery, and fantasy proneness. Participants who reported hallucinatory experiences during the White Christmas task scored higher on mental imagery and fantasy proneness as compared to those who did not report such experiences. Furthermore, self-reported imagery ability and fantasy proneness were strongly related. However, logistic regression analysis indicated that fantasy proneness was the best predictor of hallucinatory reports. Implications of these findings for the study of hallucinatory reports in non-clinical populations are discussed.