An Experimental Investigation of the Relationship between Hynotic Susceptibility and Reading Involvement

Abstract

In a test of J. R. Hilgard's (1970) theory relating hypnotic susceptibility and imaginative involvement two groups of 10 subjects, one scoring high on tests of hypnotic susceptibility and one scoring low, were compared on two measures of reading involvement. In one, subjects were asked to read a short story in the laboratory and then to rate their involvement on seven 7-point scales. In the other, subjects were asked to use the same scales to rate their usual level of involvement when reading imaginative literature. The findings confirmed Hilgard's theory. The highly hypnotizable subjects became more involved in the story and rated their usual involvements higher than the lower hypnotizable subjects. The correlations between the two sets of ratings indicated that subjects, particularly in the high scoring group, saw the involvement in the story as representing their usual level of involvement. The research indicates the potential value of controlled involvement tasks in this field.