The Australian Sheep-Goat Scale (ASGS) is a questionnaire conceived by Michael Thalbourne to determine the extent to which the respondent believes in the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

. The description "Australian" is given because the test was devised in Adelaide, South Australia, and to distinguish it from other nations' instruments (such as the Icelandic Sheep-Goat Scale). A person who believes in some aspect of the paranormal is termed a "sheep", and a disbeliever a "goat" (after the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

simile about Christ separating the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats). The version of the scale most commonly used in research (Thalbourne, 1995) has 18 items, such as "I believe in the existence of ESP", "I have had at least one dream that came true and which (I believe) was not just a coincidence", "I believe in

life after death ''Life After Death'' is the second and final studio album by American rapper The Notorious B.I.G., released on March 25, 1997, by Bad Boy Records and distributed by Arista Records. A double album, it was released sixteen days after his murder. ...

" and "I believe in the existence of

psychokinesis Telekinesis () (alternatively called psychokinesis) is a purported psychic ability allowing an individual to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Experiments to prove the existence of telekinesis have historically been cri ...

(or PK)—that is, the direct influence of mind on a physical system, without the mediation of any known physical energy". The possible answers are "true", "uncertain" and "false", which score two points, one point and zero points, respectively. The sum of the points given to the 18 items is the total ASGS score, which ranges from 0 through 36. The criterion for item selection is whether the topic contravenes philosopher

C. D. Broad Charlie Dunbar Broad (30 December 1887 – 11 March 1971), usually cited as C. D. Broad, was an English philosopher who worked on epistemology, history of philosophy, philosophy of science, and ethics, as well as the philosophical aspects ...

's " Basic Limiting Principles", which set limits on the existence and operation of mind in a mathematically describable universe; the scale does not include items on

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

, cryptozoological creatures, or

extraterrestrial intelligence Extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) refers to hypothetical intelligent extraterrestrial life. No such life has ever been verifiably observed to exist. The question of whether other inhabited worlds might exist has been debated since ancient histo ...

, to name a few anomalies. While the above-described version of the scale—the Forced Choice version—is the most popular, there are alternative versions; the most-frequently found are the

visual analogue scale The visual analogue scale (VAS) is a psychometric response scale that can be used in questionnaires. It is a measurement instrument for subjective characteristics or attitudes that cannot be directly measured. When responding to a VAS item, respond ...

version and the Rasch scaled version. There is some evidence that these three versions yield approximately the same answers to research questions. A background paper concerning scale construction and empirical findings with the ASGS has been published. A relationship between narcissistic personality and paranormal belief was discovered in a study involving the Australian Sheep-Goat Scale. A 2011 study into the relationship between

coincidence A coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances that have no apparent causal connection with one another. The perception of remarkable coincidences may lead to supernatural, occult, or paranormal claims, or it may lead to b ...

and paranormal belief using the Australian Sheep-Goat Scale revealed "significant interaction effect between Sheep-Goat score and type of coincidence, suggesting that people with lower thresholds of surprise, when experiencing coincidences, harbor higher paranormal belief than those with a higher threshold."Hadlaczky, G., & Westerlund, J. (2011). ''Sensitivity to coincidences and paranormal belief''. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 113, 894-908.

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