FIND OUT HOW HYPNOTISABLE YOU ARE!
Take part in Kev’s hypnosis PhD study
I’m currently running a study to find out how hypnotisable people are using an online, automated, self-contained survey. It doesn’t use any hypnosis (obviously!) but instead measures your capacity for phenomenological control, which is empirically equivalent to “hypnotisability". It’s only open to those aged 18 or over, with normal (or normalised) vision and hearing, and it typically takes between 30 minutes and an hour to complete it. At the end it will give you your score and some information about how to interpret it.
Follows is the advert and consent information; after that is the URL. I hope you find it interesting and fun! BTW, while the link is still active, the study will still be running. When the study is over, I hope to replace this survey with one that under 18s can do too!
This study will take up to one hour and measures your “capacity for phenomenological control”, which is the capability people use to respond to imaginative suggestions, like hypnotic suggestions. Previous studies have shown that capacity for phenomenological control is essentially the same as what has traditionally been called “hypnotisability”. The benefit of measuring phenomenological control is that it doesn’t involve hypnosis, making the measurement quick and simple for everyone. The study will present 14 imaginative suggestions, and will then ask you to report how much you felt the effects of each one.
Following, it will ask a few questions related to your interests, and your feelings (note that this includes sexual feelings). Finally, it will tell you your score and provide information to help you understand whether that is higher or lower than the average, and how far from the average it is.
You may have already had some experience of hypnosis – you may even be expert in it or perhaps have a lot of experience of being hypnotised – or you may have had absolutely no knowledge of it at all. This does not matter to the measurement of phenomenological control, as no prior experience or knowledge is necessary. You just need roughly normal (or normalised) vision and hearing. Vision is required because one of the suggestions requires you to look at the screen and report what you can see. Hearing is required because all of the suggestions are delivered via recorded audio.
The study is delivered as a self-contained survey that includes all the information, all the suggestions, and all of the opportunities to report your answers. It requires a web browser (other than Safari, as the software doesn’t currently work in Safari) and Internet access. You will need headphones and a space where you will not be disturbed for about an hour.
If you wish to participate, read the Information and Consent Sheet below; the survey will ask you to confirm your consent before proceeding.
Information & Consent Sheet
Invitation to take part
You are being invited to take part in a research study to further our understanding of how capacity for phenomenological control is distributed among the population, and whether people with certain interests have higher or lower scores than other people. It is an exploratory or pilot study, meaning that while we may publish anonymised results, the purpose of the study is to identify potential links that can be explored in a full study. A beneficial side-effect of this study, however, is that at the end we can tell you your Phenomenological Control Scale score, which for example would give you an idea of your capacity to respond to a hypnotic suggestion if you chose to use it. The difference from hypnosis is phenomenological control suggestions involve simply you using your cognitive and imaginative skills to create effects on yourself; there is no hypnotist nor any suggestion for a trance.
Thank you for carefully reading this information sheet. This study is being conducted by Kevin Sheldrake and Professor Zoltan Dienes from the School of Psychology, University of Sussex, who are happy to be contacted (K.Sheldrake@sussex.ac.uk or dienes@sussex.ac.uk) if you have any questions. This research has been approved (ER/KS719/3) by the Sciences & Technology Cross-Schools Research Ethics Committee (C-REC) (crecscitec@sussex.ac.uk). The University of Sussex has insurance in place to cover its legal liabilities in respect of this study.
Why have I been invited to take part and what will I do?
We intend to test at least 100 people, with no upper limit. The test will take up to one hour using a web browser (other than Safari), an Internet connection and headphones. You will be asked to imagine various simple behaviours and sensations, such as your hands being pulled together like magnets, and to reflect on the experiences. There will be 14 such imaginative exercises plus a warm up exercise. You will rate how strongly you experienced various sensations, such as your hands being pulled together.
Do I have to take part?
It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you do decide to take part you can keep a copy of this information sheet. If you decide to take part you are still free to withdraw at any time and without giving a reason.
What will happen to the results and my personal information?
The research may be written into a scientific report for publication. We anticipate being able to provide a summary of our findings on request from October 2025 (K.Sheldrake@sussex.ac.uk or dienes@sussex.ac.uk). The privacy of your data will be ensured; it will be stored on a university managed system and will only be accessible by the experimenters. The analysis of the data and the resultant report will not personally identify any experiment participants. Please read this information carefully and then, if you wish to take part, proceeding with the survey shows you have fully understood this sheet, and that you consent to take part in the study as it is described here.
CONSENT
• I am 18 years of age or older with normal or normalised vision and hearing.
• I understand that I am agreeing to take part in the University of Sussex research described here, and that I have read and understood this information sheet.
• I understand that my participation is entirely voluntary, that I can choose not to participate in part or all of the study, and that I can withdraw at any stage without having to give a reason and without being penalised in any way (e.g., if I am a student, my decision whether or not to take part will not affect my grades).
• I understand that data collected during the study will be identified by a randomised personal identifier (internally generated), and that I will be asked to generate a unique code that can be used later to identify my data, should I then wish for my data to be removed from the study. I understand that this unique code, my email address and my name/nickname (if supplied) will be stored separately from my responses, and the document that links my randomised personal identifier to my unique code, email address and my name/nickname will be encrypted. I understand that if I wish to withdraw from the study that I will need to provide my unique code so that my data can be identified and removed.
• I understand that if I provide my email address, then I may be contacted in the future with opportunities to take part in related studies. My data from this study may be linked to, and analysed with, data collected from me in future studies.
• I understand that my personal data will be used for the purposes of this research study and will be handled in accordance with Data Protection legislation. I understand that the University’s Privacy Notice provides further information on how the University uses personal data in its research.
• Electronic data will be stored securely on a university managed system. Information about data privacy can be found here. Anonymised data may be made publicly available through Open Science Framework online data repository and thus may be used for research purposes by other researchers.
Phew! Thank you for reading the consent information! Here is the study url: https://universityofsussex.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dm96Oa44lQpWnD8