On becoming hypnotized: How skeptics become convinced: A case of attitude change?

Abstract

Abstract Tape recordings, interviews, and participant observation in a hypnosis workshop were used to perform a social psychological analysis of becoming hypnotized. During the first sessions, most persons were struck by the ambiguity and vagueness of “hypnosis” and doubted the authenticity of their own “trances.” By the last session, most persons had learned how to behave like good hypnotic Ss and had come to accept new definitions of their own feelings and of the term hypnosis. The ways in which these changes occurred are compared with the ways in which attitude change occurs in laboratory settings, particularly as a result of role playing and forced compliance.