Failing to resist hypnotic test suggestions: a strategy for self-presenting as deeply hypnotized

Traditionally, hypnosis has been associated with the idea that highly hypnotizable subjects lose voluntary control over their responses and become incapable of resisting suggestions. We contend instead that even excellent hypnotic subjects retain control over their responses. These subjects are invested in presenting themselves as "deeply hypnotized," and to this end employ relevant contextual information to guide their hypnotic enactments. Contextual demands in the hypnotic test situation usually reinforce the idea that hypnotic behavior is involuntary. Therefore, the enactments of highly hypnotizable subjects are typically designed to convey the impression that responses to suggestions are involuntary happenings that cannot be successfully resisted. This formulation implies that highly hypnotizable subjects will present themselves as unable to resist suggestions or, alternatively, as able to easily resist suggestions, depending upon which of these self-presentations they associate with "deep hypnosis." We tested this and related hypotheses by varying the demands associated with "deep hypnosis" and noting the effects on the tendencies of highly hypnotizable subjects to resist suggestions and to describe their responses as involuntary happenings over which they had lost control.