Suggestibility in Everyday Life
Assignment 4: Suggestibility in Everyday Life
I would define suggestibility as an act of being lured into accepting an act or behavior on the simple suggestion of another individual. However, I don’t believe that being suggestible means being the same thing as gullible. For the first scenario, I walked over to my brother and told him I saw a scratch on his upper right arm. With concern I proceeded to ask him how he got it and if it was super itchy or not. He was surprised that he had something on his arm and immediately began to search for it. After what seemed like a few very long seconds, he started to caress the portion of his arm that I had pointed out for him. The soft caressing with the palm of his hand quickly turned into scratching delicately, which later got slightly aggressive. He was confused on how he got, what seemed like a mark to him, on his arm. This scenario definitely worked and I got by little brother into believing there was something truly on the upper side of this right arm. I planted the idea into his head, and he accepted the suggestion that his nonexistent mark was itchy.
For scenario number two I was with a friend after class. She was discussing something about the class we just attended just when I interrupted her. I told her that her throat was all scratched up and she was inevitably going to have a sudden impulse to take a big gulp in order to relieve this discomfort. She quickly gazed into my eyes with a confused look and what did she do? She took a vast gulp like there was something truly stuck in her throat. To be honest I was not at all surprised by her action. That morning I had read this assignment, and after reading scenario two, I was also compelled to take in a deep gulp. It is interesting to see how easily we can trick ourselves into believing something with just the mere suggestion of another. This experiment was also a complete success. The third scenario also worked for me. The two friends I used for this setup
I would define suggestibility as an act of being lured into accepting an act or behavior on the simple suggestion of another individual. However, I don’t believe that being suggestible means being the same thing as gullible. For the first scenario, I walked over to my brother and told him I saw a scratch on his upper right arm. With concern I proceeded to ask him how he got it and if it was super itchy or not. He was surprised that he had something on his arm and immediately began to search for it. After what seemed like a few very long seconds, he started to caress the portion of his arm that I had pointed out for him. The soft caressing with the palm of his hand quickly turned into scratching delicately, which later got slightly aggressive. He was confused on how he got, what seemed like a mark to him, on his arm. This scenario definitely worked and I got by little brother into believing there was something truly on the upper side of this right arm. I planted the idea into his head, and he accepted the suggestion that his nonexistent mark was itchy.
For scenario number two I was with a friend after class. She was discussing something about the class we just attended just when I interrupted her. I told her that her throat was all scratched up and she was inevitably going to have a sudden impulse to take a big gulp in order to relieve this discomfort. She quickly gazed into my eyes with a confused look and what did she do? She took a vast gulp like there was something truly stuck in her throat. To be honest I was not at all surprised by her action. That morning I had read this assignment, and after reading scenario two, I was also compelled to take in a deep gulp. It is interesting to see how easily we can trick ourselves into believing something with just the mere suggestion of another. This experiment was also a complete success. The third scenario also worked for me. The two friends I used for this setup