Myths and Misconceptions About Hypnosis and Suggestion: Separating Fact and Fiction

Myths and Misconceptions About Hypnosis and Suggestion: Separating Fact and Fiction. Steven Jay Lynn  Irving Kirsch  Devin B. Terhune  Joseph P. Green. Applied Cognitive Psychology, August 11 2020. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3730

Summary: We present 21 prominent myths and misconceptions about hypnosis in order to promulgate accurate information and to highlight questions for future research. We argue that these myths and misconceptions have (a) fostered a skewed and stereotyped view of hypnosis among the lay public, (b) discouraged participant involvement in potentially helpful hypnotic interventions, and (c) impeded the exploration and application of hypnosis in scientific and practitioner communities. Myths reviewed span the view that hypnosis produces a trance or special state of consciousness and allied myths on topics related to hypnotic interventions; hypnotic responsiveness and the modification of hypnotic suggestibility; inducing hypnosis; and hypnosis and memory, awareness, and the experience of nonvolition. By demarcating myth from mystery and fact from fiction, and by highlighting what is known as well as what remains to be discovered, the science and practice of hypnosis can be advanced and grounded on a firmer empirical footing.

15.  Hypnosis produces a sleep-like state
16.  Hypnosis is like mindfulness
17.   There are reliable markers of a hypnotic state
18. The perception of involuntariness during hypnosis is the product of a trance
19.  People cannot resist or oppose hypnotic suggestions
20.  Hypnosis is a reliable method to improve recent memories
Simons and Chabris (2011) reported that as many as 55.4% of the U.S. general  public agreed that “Hypnosis is useful in helping witnesses accurately recall details of crimes.”  However, although hypnosis can produce increases in accurate memories, increases in inaccurate memories (Scoboria, Mazzoni, Kirsch, & Milling (2002). Courts in 27 states in the U.S. have barred admitting testimony based on concerns about false memories and unwarranted confidence in such memories (see Lynn, Boycheva, Deming, & Hallquist, 2009). For example, in 23 studies Lynn et al. (2009) reviewed, hypnotized individuals either expressed greater confidence in recollections during or after hypnosis compared with individuals who were not hypnotized, or hypnotized individuals expressed confidence in inaccurate memories regarding events they had previously denied (see Lynn et al., 2009). In an additional nine studies, participants in hypnotic and nonhypnotic conditions were equally confident in their recollections. However, in five of the studies, hypnosis engendered more errors or less accurate information on some or all measures, and in all but one of the remaining studies, there were no differences in hypnotic vs. nonhypnotic memory accuracy. The role of misleading questions in hypnotic versus nonhypnotic recall and the extent to which hypnosis impacts "don't know" responses and unanswerable questions remain unclear (Scoboria, Mazzoni, Kirsch, & Milling, 2002; Scoboria et al., 2006; Scoboria, Mazzoni, & Kirsch, 2008). In sum, hypnosis is not a reliable recall enhancement tool (Mazzoni, Heap, & Scoboria, 2010).
21.  Hypnotic age regression can retrieve accurate memories from the distant past