Can hypnotic suggestibility be measured online?

Psychol Res. 2020 Jul;84(5):1460-1471. doi: 10.1007/s00426-019-01162-w. Epub 2019 Mar 5.

Abstract

Hypnosis and hypnotic suggestions are gradually gaining popularity within the consciousness community as established tools for the experimental manipulation of illusions of involuntariness, hallucinations and delusions. However, hypnosis is still far from being a widespread instrument; a crucial hindrance to taking it up is the amount of time needed to invest in identifying people high and low in responsiveness to suggestion. In this study, we introduced an online assessment of hypnotic response and estimated the extent to which the scores and psychometric properties of an online screening differ from an offline one. We propose that the online screening of hypnotic response is viable as it reduces the level of responsiveness only by a slight extent. The application of online screening may prompt researchers to run large-scale studies with more heterogeneous samples, which would help researchers to overcome some of the issues underlying the current replication crisis in psychology.

MeSH terms

  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hypnosis*
  • Internet
  • Male
  • Suggestion*