&gt; But as this is the first ever investigation into the question, and it used an unconventional methodology, it&#x27;s fair to say the results are far from conclusive.<p>See also the Independent article here: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.independent.co.uk&#x2F;life-style&#x2F;health-and-families&#x2F;health-news&#x2F;most-people-hear-voices-when-they-read-normal-psychological-study-finds-a6890766.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.independent.co.uk&#x2F;life-style&#x2F;health-and-families&#x2F;...</a><p>As I understand it (and I could be wrong) &quot;hearing a voice&quot; pretty much means you hear a voice as if someone was speaking but there&#x27;s noone there. The paper talked about claimed that 80% of people &quot;hear a voice&quot; when they read.<p>I find that surprising, and I&#x27;d want to know what exactly is meant by &quot;inner reading voices&quot; - are these voices that people hear, or are they something else?<p>&gt; Why hasn&#x27;t this topic been studied before? Vilhauer&#x27;s study hints at an answer because she found that many people assumed that their inner experiences when reading were shared by everyone. This worked both ways, so some of the people who had an inner reading voice were convinced of its normality: &quot;We all hear our voices in our heads at times – even those of others we know – especially while reading,&quot; said one Yahoo contributor. Yet others who claimed to have no inner voice felt they were the normal ones. For example, in response to a question posted on the site about whether anyone else hears an inner voice while reading, one responder said &quot;Nooo. You should get that checked out&quot; and another wrote, in capitals: &quot;NO, I&#x27;M NOT A FREAK&quot;.<p>The other reason is that until relatively recently everyone freaked the fuck out if you said you heard voices, and hearing voices was a sign of serious severe mental illness.  We now know that&#x27;s probably not true.