Studies
What Sexnosis is based on – in plain words: what research shows and what it does not. Every entry links to the original.
Listen instead of reading · 35 minDirty Mind: Dirty Talk Hypnosis – Find Your Own WordsNo script, no borrowed lines: a trance that lets your own words out – in a lower, slower voice. What is a study?
Researchers try something with a group of people and write down exactly what they observed. Other experts check the work before it is published.
Why do we show them?
So you can look up what the texts here are based on – and where the limits are. We write as cautiously as the studies themselves do.
What is a DOI?
A kind of ID number for scientific articles. With it you can always find the original, even if web addresses change. For every study here we checked that the number leads to the right article.
What does it mean for you?
Studies describe what happened on average across many people – not how it will be for you. Sexnosis is not treatment. You learn the most by simply listening to a trance.
- Theory · 1959 The nature of hypnosis: Artifact and essence Orne, M. T. Much of what looks like hypnosis can be produced by people who are simulating it, so researchers must control for expectations and the experimental situation. Orne also described "trance logic" – hypnotized people tolerating logical contradictions, like seeing a person and that person's hallucinated double at once. Read more
- Scale · 1963 Norms on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A Shor, R. E., & Orne, E. C. Scores spread across the whole range, from responding to almost no suggestions to almost all of them, which made it possible to compare groups and to pick high and low scorers for experiments. The scale is still widely used in research today. Read more
- Theory · 1973 A neodissociation interpretation of pain reduction in hypnosis Hilgard, E. R. Hilgard interpreted this as a split in awareness – a "hidden observer" that registers what the hypnotized person does not consciously report – and built his neodissociation theory on it. Read more
- Theory · 1985 Response expectancy as a determinant of experience and behavior Kirsch, I. Response expectancies are self-confirming. On this view, much of hypnosis works because people expect suggested experiences to happen on their own, and then they do. Read more
- Review · 1986 Causes of sexual dysfunction: The role of anxiety and cognitive interference Barlow, D. H. When attention shifts from erotic sensations to worries about performance – watching oneself instead of experiencing – arousal tends to drop. Read more
- Review · 1995 Sexual fantasy Leitenberg, H., & Henning, K. Almost all adults report having sexual fantasies. Fantasies are not a sign of dissatisfaction; people who fantasise more tended to report fewer sexual problems, not more. Read more
- Experiment · 1997 Pain affect encoded in human anterior cingulate but not somatosensory cortex Rainville, P., Duncan, G. H., Price, D. D., Carrier, B., & Bushnell, M. C. Ratings of unpleasantness changed with the suggestions, and so did activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. Activity in the primary somatosensory cortex, which tracks the physical sensation, did not change in the same way. Pain intensity and pain unpleasantness can be separated. Read more
- Theory · 2000 The Female Sexual Response: A Different Model Basson, R. Desire can be responsive rather than spontaneous – it may follow arousal instead of preceding it. Read more
- Experiment · 2000 Hypnotic visual illusion alters color processing in the brain Kosslyn, S. M., Thompson, W. L., Costantini-Ferrando, M. F., Alpert, N. M., & Spiegel, D. Activity in brain regions involved in colour processing followed what participants were told to see, not only what was on the screen. The suggestion changed perception-related brain activity, not just what people said they saw. Read more
- Experiment · 2002 Hypnotic suggestion and the modulation of Stroop interference Raz, A., Shapiro, T., Fan, J., & Posner, M. I. In highly hypnotizable participants, the suggestion strongly reduced Stroop interference, one of the most robust effects in cognitive psychology. In less hypnotizable participants it did not. Read more
- Experiment · 2005 Hypnotic suggestion reduces conflict in the human brain Raz, A., Fan, J., & Posner, M. I. In highly hypnotizable participants the suggestion reduced Stroop conflict and was accompanied by reduced activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region involved in detecting conflict, and in visual areas. Read more
- Experiment · 2008 A Mindfulness-Based Group Psychoeducational Intervention Targeting Sexual Arousal Disorder in Women Brotto, L. A., Basson, R., & Luria, M. After the programme, participants reported improvements in sexual arousal, desire and satisfaction. Read more
- Experiment · 2014 Group mindfulness-based therapy significantly improves sexual desire in women Brotto, L. A., & Basson, R. Sexual desire and related outcomes such as satisfaction improved after the programme. Read more
- Theory · 2014 Sensate Focus: clarifying the Masters and Johnson's model Weiner, L., & Avery-Clark, C. The core of Sensate Focus is not relaxation or pleasing the partner but paying attention to touch sensations for one's own interest – which takes pressure off arousal and performance. Read more
- Definition · 2015 Advancing research and practice: The revised APA Division 30 definition of hypnosis Elkins, G. R., Barabasz, A. F., Council, J. R., & Spiegel, D. Hypnosis is described as a state of consciousness with focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness, marked by an increased capacity to respond to suggestion. Induction is the procedure used to bring about that state; hypnotizability is how well a person can experience suggested changes. Read more
- Experiment · 2017 Brain activity and functional connectivity associated with hypnosis Jiang, H., White, M. P., Greicius, M. D., Waelde, L. C., & Spiegel, D. During hypnosis, highly hypnotizable participants showed reduced activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, stronger coupling between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the insula, and weaker coupling between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the default mode network. Read more
- Meta-analysis · 2017 Brain correlates of hypnosis: A systematic review and meta-analytic exploration Landry, M., Lifshitz, M., & Raz, A. Across studies, hypnosis was associated with activity in a set of regions linked to attention, control and the sense of the body, including the lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and insula. There is no single "hypnosis area". Read more
- Review · 2017 Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness Terhune, D. B., Cleeremans, A., Raz, A., & Lynn, S. J. Hypnosis is presented as a tool for studying top-down regulation – how expectations and intentions shape experience. The authors stress large individual differences in suggestibility, including subtypes among highly suggestible people. Read more
- Meta-analysis · 2019 The effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 85 controlled experimental trials Thompson, T., Terhune, D. B., Oram, C., Sharangparni, J., Rouf, R., Solmi, M., et al. Hypnotic suggestions reduced laboratory pain on average, and suggestibility mattered a lot. The largest effects were in highly suggestible participants, smaller effects in medium suggestible people and the smallest in low suggestible people. Read more
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