Modulation of attentional bias by hypnosis: Disentangling the effect of induction and suggestion

Hypnotic suggestions can modulate unintentional emotional processing. However, the specific contributions of hypnotic induction and suggestion - two central components of the hypnotic procedure - remain unclear. The present study aims to disentangle the effects of hypnotic induction and emotional numbing suggestion on the modulation of attentional bias in two experiments. In Experiment 1, high suggestible individuals (N = 34) performed an online emotional Stroop task in a two-by-two within-subject experimental design in which we crossed hypnotic induction and suggestion. Results show that both the emotional numbing suggestion - whether delivered within or outside the hypnotic context - and the relaxation-based hypnotic induction led to equivalent modulation of attentional bias. Experiment 2 tested the potential confounding effects of demand characteristics and of session repetition on the modulation of attentional bias in low suggestible individuals (N = 38). Results from this second experiment show no significant modulation of attentional bias across the four experimental sessions in this group. Our findings suggest that relaxation-based hypnotic induction and emotional numbing suggestion contribute to the modulation of attentional bias in high suggestible individuals. The results are discussed in line with socio-cognitive perspectives of the hypnotic induction, acting as a relaxation suggestion supporting emotional numbing effects.