The Relationship between Planned and Actual Responses to Hypnotic Suggestions

The notion that subjects often intentionally produce their hypnotic behavior was assessed. Several hypnotic suggestions were administered to subjects, following which overt responding, experienced involuntariness, and action-planning were self-rated. Responses to suggestions occurred proportionately more often when plans to produce the overt behavior and subjective experiences of a hypnotized person were formulated than when plans to wait passively for the responses to occur on their own were made. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.