The Psychology of Suggestion

Sidis, Boris

doi:10.1126/science.8.188.162

Cited by 70 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…The results are congruent with the old hypothesis by Sidis (1898), who was the first to distinguish between direct and hidden influence. They also confirm the results presented by Eysenck and Furneaux (1945), and further expand them, as the tests of indirect suggestibility were tapping not only the area of perception, but also memory and higher cognitive processes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Factor structure of suggestibility revisited: new evidence for direct and indirect suggestibility

Polczyk¹

2016

Current Issues in Personality Psychology

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backgroundYielding to suggestions can be viewed as a relatively stable individual trait, called suggestibility. It has been long proposed that there are two kinds of suggestible influence, and two kinds of suggestibility corresponding to them: direct and indirect. Direct suggestion involves overt unhidden influence, while indirect suggestion concerns influence that is hidden, and the participant does not know that the suggestibility is being measured. So far however, empirical evidence for the existence of the two factors has been scarce. In the present study, more sophisticated and reliable tools for measuring suggestibility were applied than in the previous research, in the hope that better measurement would reveal the factor structure of suggestibility. Two tests of direct suggestibility were used: the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A, measuring hypnotic susceptibility, and the Barber Suggestibility Scale, measuring non-hypnotic direct imaginative suggestibility. Three tests served to measure indirect suggestibility: the Sensory Suggestibility Scale, measuring indirect suggestibility relating to perception; the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale, measuring the tendency to yield to suggestive questions and changing answers after negative feedback; and the Emotional Dialogs Tests, measuring the tendency to perceive nonexistent aggression. participants and procedureIn sum, 115 participants were tested, 69 women, 49 men, mean age 22.20 years, SD = 2.20. Participants were tested in two sessions, lasting for a total of four hours. resultsConfirmatory factor analyses confirmed the existence of two uncorrelated factors of suggestibility: direct and indirect.conclusions Suggestibility may indeed involve two factors, direct and indirect, and failure to discover them in previous research may be due to methodological problems.key words confirmatory factor analysis; suggestion; suggestibility; direct suggestibility; indirect suggestibility

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Factor structure of suggestibility revisited: new evidence for direct and indirect suggestibility

Polczyk¹

2016

Current Issues in Personality Psychology

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“…They found that they could make accurate forcedchoice judgments about the relative weight or brightness of objects, even when they reported no confidence in their own judgments. Similarly, Sidis (1898) showed people cards with a letter or digit from such a distance that participants reported not to be able to see anything, at which point he concluded that they were unaware of perceiving either digits or letters. However, when he used a second measure-forced-choice guessing-his participants were able to guess the category of the card (digit or letter).…”

Section: Subjective Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

How can we measure awareness? An overview of current methods

Timmermans¹,

Cleeremans

2015

Behavioral Methods in Consciousness Research

141

113

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“…Specific interest in suggestibility emerged during the late 19 th century and suggestibility soon enjoyed "an enormous vogue" (Jahoda, 1989 p. 255) within the wider arena of the social sciences, where it was drawn on to explain the most diverse social phenomena, such as crime, war or religion, the nature of mobs, or the success of charismatic leaders (Le Bon 1895;McDougall, 1911;James, 1890;Tarde 1903;Sidis & James, 1919). Scientists now seen as the founding figures of psychology, such as Wundt (1892), Binet (1900) or Freud (1919), also regarded suggestibility, alongside memory, as one of the central topics for the emerging discipline.…”

Section: Suggestibility Defies Definition and Merges With The Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(McDougall, 1911, p. 97). On the other hand, and in stark contrast to such assertions of irrationality, the ability to be suggestible was considered the most fundamental characteristic of the human mind accounting for the possibility of learning, affection and social cohesion, in short the sine qua non of human existence (Baudoin 1921;Sidis & James, 1919). Interestingly, McDougall also embraced this positive aspect of suggestibility, attributing children's ability to "absorb knowledge, beliefs, and especially the sentiments of their social environment" to the "virtue largely of their suggestibility" (McDougall, 1911, p. 100).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the transdisciplinary trajectory of suggestibility

Motzkau

2009

Subjectivity

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Traditionally considered a deficiency in will power and rationality, suggestibility has proven a troublesome concept for psychology. It was forgotten, rediscovered, denounced, undermined experimentation and recently became the ambiguous issue at the centre of concern about child witness' credibility in sexual abuse cases. This paper traces the history of suggestibility to show how it raises the 'paradox of the psychosocial'. Drawing on the work of Deleuze and Stengers, and on interviews with legal practitioners, this paper demonstrates how suggestibility carries this paradox into theory, research and legal practice. It thereby opens up a transdisciplinary perspective, allowing for questions of power and knowledge to be asked as performative questions. In the spirit of a process centred ontology for psychology, Iargue that suggestibility constitutes a 'rhythm of problematisation', a folding, offering a subversive insight into dynamics of subjectification and application, and offering new perspectives towards issues of children's credibility and protection.

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The Psychology of Suggestion

Cited by 70 publications

References 1 publication

Factor structure of suggestibility revisited: new evidence for direct and indirect suggestibility

Factor structure of suggestibility revisited: new evidence for direct and indirect suggestibility

How can we measure awareness? An overview of current methods

Exploring the transdisciplinary trajectory of suggestibility

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