THE EFFECTS OF CUE LEVEL, HYPNOTIZABILITY, AND STATE INSTRUCTION ON RESPONSES TO LEADING QUESTIONS

Two sessions were conducted in which independent groups of 86 high- an d 85 low-susceptible subjects, responding individually under waking or hypnotic instruction, answered high- and low-cued leading questions a bout a video event that depicted shooting at an airport. The two sessi ons were separated by 1 week, and the same questions were asked in bot h sessions. It was predicted that highly susceptible subjects respondi ng under hypnotic instruction would show the most evidence of acceptin g false information via strongly cued leading questions. Results showe d general effects for leading questions and level of susceptibility bu t no firm support for the involvement of hypnosis. Data are discussed in terms of both the linguistic and social factors that appear to have operated on subjects in the study, results overall highlight the stro ng influence of level of susceptibility on subjects' acceptance of fal se information.