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Hypnotic emotional numbing: a study of implicit emotion
1University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. r.bryant@unsw.edu.au
Summary
Hypnotic emotional numbing reduced the impact of negative images on word ratings in highly hypnotizable individuals. This suggests hypnosis influences preattentive emotional processing.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Emotional stimuli can influence subsequent cognitive processing, even at a preattentive level.
- Hypnosis is known to modulate emotional and cognitive functions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of hypnotic emotional numbing on the processing of subliminal emotional stimuli.
- To examine whether hypnosis influences emotional responses at a preattentive stage.
Main Methods:
- Twenty high and 20 low hypnotizable participants were given a hypnotic induction.
- Participants were exposed to subliminal negative and neutral images before rating neutral words.
- A subset received an emotional numbing suggestion during hypnosis.
Main Results:
- High hypnotizability individuals receiving emotional numbing showed no difference in word ratings after negative or neutral images.
- High hypnotizability individuals without numbing, and all low hypnotizability individuals, rated words more positively after negative images.
- Subliminal negative stimuli generally biased neutral word ratings toward positivity, except in the numbing group.
Conclusions:
- Hypnotic emotional numbing can effectively diminish the influence of subliminal negative stimuli on subsequent emotional word ratings in highly hypnotizable individuals.
- These findings support the role of hypnosis in modulating preattentive emotional processing stages.