“Am I hypnotizable?” is not a matter of opinion. For over sixty years, researchers have had standard tests that give a score. Here is how they work, and how much the quick tests you see online are worth.
The principle
A hypnotizability scale is a standard hypnotic induction followed by a fixed series of suggestions that get steadily harder. Each one is scored as passed or failed against set criteria. The total is your score.
Because everyone gets the same procedure, results can be compared between people, laboratories and decades.
The Stanford scales
The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales were developed by André Weitzenhoffer and Ernest Hilgard at Stanford University, with Forms A and B appearing in 1959 and Form C in 1962.
Each has twelve items of increasing difficulty and takes about fifty minutes, given to one person at a time. Form C, with more demanding cognitive items, is often treated as the gold standard in research.
Typical items across the scales include:
- Hand lowering: your outstretched arm grows heavy and sinks
- Moving hands apart or together
- Arm rigidity: you cannot bend your arm
- Taste hallucination: something sweet or sour in your mouth
- Mosquito hallucination: a buzzing insect that is not there
- Dream: having a dream on a suggested topic
- Age regression: writing as you did as a child
- Anosmia: not smelling a strong odour
- Negative visual hallucination: seeing two boxes where there are three
- Post-hypnotic amnesia: forgetting the session until a cue is given
Scores run from 0 to 12 and are often grouped as low (0–4), medium (5–7), high (8–9) and very high (10–12).
The Harvard Group Scale
Testing people one at a time is slow. In 1962, Ronald Shor and Emily Carota Orne adapted the Stanford Form A for groups. The Harvard Group Scale has twelve items, takes about forty-five minutes, and can be given by recording to a large room, with people scoring themselves afterwards.
It is the most widely used screening test in research. Its items are weighted towards movement, so it is somewhat easier than Stanford Form C, and researchers often use it first and then confirm high scorers individually.
The eye-roll test
In the 1960s the psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel proposed a much quicker measure, the Hypnotic Induction Profile. Its best-known element is the eye-roll sign: you look upward as far as you can and then slowly close your eyelids while still looking up. The amount of white showing is scored, and was claimed to indicate hypnotic capacity.
It takes minutes, which made it popular with clinicians. The evidence has not been kind to the eye-roll itself, though. Studies found it failed to correlate with either the Stanford Form C or the Harvard scale, and Hilgard concluded the claims for it were unsubstantiated.
If someone tells you your eyes show you are highly hypnotizable, treat it as a party trick.
Newer scales
Shorter modern scales have been designed for clinical use, including the Elkins Hypnotizability Scale, which takes around twenty-five minutes and correlates well with the Stanford.
Informal tests
Stage hypnotists and many therapists use quick “suggestibility tests”:
- Hand clasp: your fingers lock and will not separate
- Magnetic fingers: two raised fingertips drift together
- Bucket and balloon: one arm grows heavy, the other light
- Postural sway: you feel pulled backwards
- Lemon: imagining biting one makes your mouth water
These are fun, and they serve a purpose: they build expectation and help a hypnotist choose responsive volunteers. They are not validated measurements. Some, such as magnetic fingers, work on nearly everyone for mechanical reasons.
Does your score matter?
For research, a great deal. Many findings only appear in high scorers.
For therapy, less than you might think.
- Score predicts response most clearly for demanding effects such as pain control.
- For relaxation, stress and habit change, most people can benefit whatever their score.
- Most clinicians do not test formally. Some argue it sets up failure; others say it guides treatment.
- A low score is not a verdict. It suggests which approaches may suit you better.
Can you get tested?
Not easily. The formal scales are research tools. University psychology departments running hypnosis studies sometimes recruit volunteers, which is the most reliable way to get a real score.
The bottom line
Hypnotizability can be measured, and the Stanford and Harvard scales do it well. Quick tricks like the eye-roll do not. For practical purposes, the best test is to try hypnosis and see how you respond.
Next in the series: Hypnosis for ADHD and Autistic Minds: What We Know
This article is for general information and is not medical advice.