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Reporting biases in hypnosis: suggestion or compliance?
S B Reed1, I Kirsch, C Wickless
1Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs 06269-1020, USA.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
|February 1, 1996
Summary
Highly hypnotizable individuals
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Hypnotizability describes an individual's capacity to experience hypnotic alterations.
- Previous research suggests highly hypnotizable individuals may alter their perceptions based on instructions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether highly hypnotizable participants' altered perceptions during hypnosis are solely due to compliance with instructions.
- To compare the responses of highly hypnotizable individuals with those of low-hypnotizable individuals instructed to simulate hypnosis.
Main Methods:
- Recruitment of highly hypnotizable participants and low-hypnotizable control participants.
- Instruction for control participants to simulate hypnotic responses.
- Administration of hypnotic suggestions and subsequent demand instructions to assess perceptual reports.
Main Results:
- No significant difference in mean scores between highly hypnotizable participants and simulators.
- Simulators exhibited less variability in responses to demand instructions compared to highly hypnotizable participants.
- Some highly hypnotizable participants reported perceptual changes contrary to the demand instruction, unlike simulators.
Conclusions:
- The responses of highly hypnotizable participants to both hypnotic suggestions and demand instructions may not solely stem from compliance.
- Suggests a potential genuine alteration in perception beyond simple obedience in highly hypnotizable individuals.
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