Hypnotic behavior: The differentiation of trance and demand characteristic variables.

Abstract

Hypnotic subjects received posthypnotic suggestions to begin all sentences to the ostensible experimental (Taffel) task with "he" and "they, " and to be unaware of and amnesic for this fact. Waking simulator subjects received identical suggestions preceded by instructions to behave later as though they had been hypnotized when they received the suggestions. During a post-experimental inquiry with a different E, 8 of 14 hypnotic subjects were amnesic for their experimental behavior; none of the 13 simulating subjects were amnesic (p<. 0005). All simulating subjects testified that their use of "he" and "they" was voluntary; the reverse was true for 12 of 14 hypnotic subjects (p<. 00005). The results of this experiment demonstrate that hypnotic behavior is not wholly reducible to acting in accordance with demand characteristics, and suggest that there is a "state" of hypnosis within which suggestions have a peculiarly potent effect.