Personality Traits Associated with Premonition Experience: Neuroticism, Extroversion, Empathy and Schizotypy

Premonition is a feeling that something is about to happen when no normal information is available, and in which the target cannot be deduced from normally known data in the present. The main aim was to estimate the proportion of people who claim to have had various kinds of premonition experiences, and to explore any association between these experiences and personality variables such as neuroticism, extroversion, empathy and schizotypy. Respondents completed a questionnaire on premonitions, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and Oxford–Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences. Personality measures data were compared on dream-related premonition experiences for experients (N = 80) vs. non-experients (N = 271), and on non-dream-related premonition experiences for experients (N = 184) vs. non-experients (N = 167). Participants who reported premonitions had higher scores on empathy and schizotypy, but were not significantly higher on neuroticism and extroversion, although they did endorse more positive indicators of schizotypy (unusual experiences) and cognitive empathy, such as emotional comprehension. Although schizotypy personality traits were associated with premonition experience, experients and non-experients did not differ in its negative dimensions.