The effects of contextual information and gender on the prediction of hypnotic susceptibility.
H P De Groot, M I Gwynn, N P Spanos
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology June 1988 DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.54.6.1049 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Men and women tested for hypnotic susceptibility |
| Duration | Two sessions |
| Measures | absorption questionnaire, mystical experience questionnaire, daydreaming frequency questionnaire, paranormal beliefs questionnaire, hypnotic susceptibility test |
| Key findings | For women, questionnaire measures predicted hypnotic susceptibility only when participants were informed about hypnotic testing before completing the questionnaires; in the told-after condition, this effect generalized to all remaining measures. For men, none of the questionnaires reliably predicted susceptibility. |
Abstract
Council, Kirsch, and Hafner (1986) obtained empirical support for the hypothesis that significant correlations between questionnaire measures of absorption and hypnotic susceptibility are an artifact of subjects' beliefs about their own hypnotizability. We tested this hypothesis in a two-session experiment. During Session 1, subjects completed questionnaire measures of absorption, mystical experience, daydreaming frequency, and paranormal beliefs. During Session 2, subjects were tested for hypnotic susceptibility. Subjects were also exposed to one of three information manipulations: They were told about hypnotic testing either before or after filling out the questionnaires or were not told about hypnotic testing. The information manipulation moderated the prediction of susceptibility by the questionnaire measures for women, but not for men. For women, scores on the absorption questionnaire predicted susceptibility only when subjects were informed about hypnotic testing. In the told-after condition, this effect generalized to all of the remaining questionnaire measures. For men, none of the questionnaires was a reliable predictor of susceptibility.