Fantasy Proneness and Hypnosis

Prior to Wilson and Barber's (1981/83) initial description of the fantasy prone personality, a number of researchers had linked hypnotic talent with various cognitive attributes, including vividness of mental imagery and imagination skills. For example, Sutcliffe, Perry, and Sheehan (1970) proposed that hypnotic ability depends not so much on specific induction techniques as on the characteristics of the hypnotic subject. They suggested that the hypnotic relationship constitutes a form of legitimized fantasy or make-believe (see also Orne, 1959), and that a person who is already prone to fantasize would make an ideal hypnotic subject. However, fantasy involvement, as measured by dream report, was not significantly related to hypnotizability in the results obtained by Sutcliffe et al. (1970). They did, however, note a significant correlation between mental imagery and hypnotizability, with fantasizers tending to be classified as vivid imagers.

A study by Spanos and McPeake (1975) found that hypnotic ability was significantly determined by both involvement in everyday imaginative activities