Was I hypnotized?: a social psychological analysis of hypnotic depth reports.

We will here review experimental work on subjects' reports of being hypnotized, using an attribution theory framework. Subjective experiences accompanying a hypnotic induction procedure and test suggestions are ambiguous, and, therefore, subjects rely on contextual information in order to label these experiences. Thus, subjects are most likely to define themselves as hypnotized when the situation is convincingly defined as hypnosis and when they observe that their responses are consistent with their conception of hypnosis. Other variables which influence subjects' reports include expert opinion and the wording of the scales used to assess subjective experiences. Rather than accurately reflecting a unique state of the person, reports of being hypnotized appear to represent the outcome of a complex interaction involving contextual information, self-observation, and pre-conceptions concerning hypnosis.