The press release was prepared by Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of KIIS

From February 17 to March 5, 2024, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion survey "Omnibus". Bythemethodofcomputer-assistedtelephoneinterviews(CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting), 2,008 respondents living in all regions of Ukraine (except the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) were interviewed. The survey was conducted with adult (aged 18 and older) citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, lived on the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Government of Ukraine. The sample did not include residents of territories temporarily not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine, and the survey was not conducted with citizens who went abroad after February 24, 2022.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 2.4% for indicators close to 50%, 2.1% for indicators close to 25%, 1.5% - for indicators close to 10%, 1.1% - for indicators close to 5%.

Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added. In particular, if in May 2022, among all the respondents we interviewed, 2.5-4% lived in the territories occupied after February 24 (and this corresponded to the percentage of those who live there, because the generation of telephone numbers was random), now due to the occupiers turning off the telephone connection, not a single respondent who currently lives in occupied settlements was included in the sample (along with this, out of a total of 2,008 respondents, 58 respondents lived in a settlement that is currently occupied until February 24, 2022). It is important to note that although the views of the respondents who lived in the occupation were somewhat different, the general trends were quite similar. That is, the impossibility to interview such respondents now does not significantly affect the quality of the results. There are other factors that can affect the quality of results in "wartime" conditions, which were cited by KIIS earlier.

In general, we believe that the obtained results are still highly representative and allow for a fairly reliable analysis of the public moods of the population.

At the beginning of the year, some representatives of the journalistic community asked whether KIIS had data, how many Ukrainians believe in astrology, etc. Unfortunately, we did not have the relevant data, but such information can really act as a certain indicator of the state of society, and that is why in February-March 2024, as part of the regular KIIS Omnibus, we asked the question "Some people believe in astrology, tarology, psychic abilities. Other people don't believe it. What about you? Do you personally rather believe or not in ...". We limited ourselves to three options, for each of which the respondent had to answer "rather believe" or "rather not believe":

• astrology - the influence of heavenly bodies on the earthly world and man (on his temperament, character, actions and fate)
• extrasensory abilities - clairvoyance, the ability to move objects with the power of thought, etc
• tarology - reading life / future by cards

It should be taken into account that the content of the questions may influence the sincerity of the answers. On the one hand, some respondents could give joking answers that they supposedly believe, although in fact it is not so. We polled the interviewers conducting the interviews as to whether they thought the respondents were being serious in answering the questions, and almost all of the interviewers were fairly confident that the answers sounded serious (although, of course, this does not guarantee that the respondents really seriously answered). On the other hand, some respondents, on the contrary, may believe, but did not want to voice it publicly to the interviewer. Currently, we have no way to assess the impact of the sincerity of the answers to this particular question, but the experience of conducting surveys allows us to place confidence in the general trends obtained.

So, 35% of Ukrainians believe in astrology, 25% in psychic abilities, 15% in tarology. 43% of Ukrainians believe in at least one of this list.

Graph 1. Share of Ukrainians who believe in astrology, psychic abilities, tarology

In the table below, the data are given among individual socio-demographic categories of the population. As can be seen, belief is widespread among all categories. It is possible to pay attention to a higher indicator among women (49% believe in at least one of the list against 36% among men), among older respondents (the indicator increases from 26% among respondents under 30 years old to 51% among respondents aged 60+), among less affluent respondents (if among respondents with a high level of wealth, 34% believe in at least one from the list, among people with very low wealth - 65%).

Table 1. Belief in astrology, psychic abilities, tarology by individual socio-demographic categories, % believe

A. Hrushetskyi, comments on the survey results:

Crisis and psychologically difficult periods (both at the social and personal levels) are a "favorable" environment for the growth of interest in such things as astrology, psychic abilities, tarology. According to the results of the KIIS survey for NDI in November 2023, 66% of Ukrainians reported worsening mental health after a full-scale invasion (73% among women and 56% among men). In addition, the explosive development of digital technologies and their strong penetration into people's everyday life significantly "simplifies" the residents' contact with astrologers, fortune-tellers, etc..

Given the scale of the situation, it is hardly appropriate to simply label people who believe in astrology, etc. The basis of faith is quite complex and it cannot be quickly dispelled by simple arguments (or even more so mockery). At the same time, the issue also needs attention, because many people in difficult circumstances can suffer significant losses or resort to destructive actions under the influence of unscrupulous people.

Annex 1. Formulation of questions from the questionnaire

Some people believe in astrology, tarology, psychic abilities. Other people don't believe it. What about you? You personally rather believe or not …

• Astrology - the influence of heavenly bodies on the earthly world and man (on his temperament, character, deeds and fate) (INTERVIEWER, BE CAREFUL NOT TO CONFUSE WITH THE SCIENCE OF ASTRONOMY)
• Tarology - reading of life / future by cards
• Extrasensory abilities - clairvoyance, the ability to move objects with the power of thought, etc

Scale: