Over Half Of Icelanders Believe In Psychic Abilities

Icelanders may be suspicious of organised religion, but spiritualism still has a strong tendency in the country.

According to a new poll from Market and Media Research, 53.7% of those who had an opinion said they believe some people possess psychic powers or the ability to talk to the dead. In fact, about a third – or 31.9% – said they had at some point attended a séance.

In terms of demographics, women were significantly more likely than men to believe in psychic abilities, at 69% to 40% respectively. Similar results were seen in the difference between people who live in the capital area as opposed to the countryside, at 46% to 67% respectively. Icelanders were less likely to believe in these abilities the older they were, but the results based on party affiliation were most striking of all: voters for the Progressive Party were the far most likely to believe in psychic powers, with 77% of voters for that party saying they believed in them. Pirates, by contrast, were the most skeptical – only 40% professed a belief in psychic abilities.

As was recently brought to light by a Maskína poll, Icelanders are becoming increasingly secular. Only 46% said they believed in some kind of religion, which is the lowest percentage since polling on the subject began. 30% said they were not religious, and 23.7% said they could not say if they were religious or not.