Change of attitudes toward hypnosis: Effects of cognitive-behavioural and trance explanations in a setting of hetero-hypnosis.

This paper deals with the effects on attitudes toward hypnosis when it is introduced in three different ways to people who explicitly indicated that they did not want to be hypnotised. One hundred and ten participants (university students) were assigned to three experimental conditions, namely: minimum information control group, trance group, and cognitive-behavioural group. After hypnosis was introduced, those participants who agreed to continue were hypnotised and their suggestibility levels were assessed. The results revealed that trance explanation produces an attitudinal change, since a very high percentage of participants dropped out of the study. Cognitive-behavioural explanation dec…