However, our results suggest that hypnotic behavior can be explained using the same principles we use to explain social behavior. Green conducted this research with Steven Jay Lynn, professor of psychology at Ohio University. The pair presented their work Aug. 15 in New York at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
Dissociative experiences occur when one engages in behaviors outside of conscious awareness.
These students were contacted by the researchers and asked to participate in a follow-up hypnosis experiment. The hypnotist then hypnotized the whole student group. After the students awoke from hypnosis, the researchers tested their ability to perform this automatic writing task. Each student wrote down target numbers with one hand while simultaneously performing another writing task with their other hand. Further, they found that students' previous dissociative experiences and their success on other difficult hypnotic suggestions had no bearing on their ability to pass the automatic writing task.