Experiment · 2002
Hypnotic suggestion and the modulation of Stroop interference
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. Raz, A., Shapiro, T., Fan, J., & Posner, M. I. · Archives of General Psychiatry, 59(12), 1155–1161
Main finding
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.
What was done
Volunteers who scored high or low on a hypnotizability scale did the Stroop task, where you name the ink colour of a colour word ("RED" printed in blue). Before the task, they received a posthypnotic suggestion that the words would look like meaningless symbols in a foreign script.
What the study does not show
The groups were small and selected for extreme scores, so the result says little about the average person. It shows that suggestion can change an automatic process in some people; it does not show how, or that hypnosis is needed for it.
Cite as
Raz, A., Shapiro, T., Fan, J., & Posner, M. I. (2002). Hypnotic suggestion and the modulation of Stroop interference. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59(12), 1155–1161. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.59.12.1155
Original paperTerms on this page
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