The Suggestible Brain
I’m still reading through this book - but I get the vibe that Amir Raz wants to open psychology academia up to interact with more fields - not restrict it. This is a hunch based on some of the authors he’s included in a book he’s an editor on - Hypnosis and Meditation.
Table of Contents
Section titled “Table of Contents”…and a quick guess as to what’s in the chapters from some exploratory reading…
Introduction
1. The magic of suggestion.
Suggestibility, the degree of effectiveness, is measurable. Tests suck. Suggestibility is contextual.
2. The evolution of how and why humans are suggestible.
Suggestibility served an evolutionary purpose - common instinct. Genetics reflect culture. Culture reflects suggestibility.
3. Do honest scientists ever deceive in research?
Yup - scientists use deception in research, although it’s been culled back by ethics boards.
4. Suggestion changes physiology
Suggestions affect homeostasis and involuntary behaviors. Some medical conditions (warts, immune reactions/allergies) as well.
5. Can clinical suggestions heal and cure?
Some symptoms are psychological. This can manifest in things like lactose intolerance and false pregnancy (sometimes…)
6. The reliable science of unreliable, suggestible memories
Narrative changes memory on encoding. False memories are easy to create - deliberately or not. Memories can also be influenced.
7. Do antidepressants “work” through suggestion?
This is mostly a recap of Kirsch’s work - but, yeah, it looks like it from Kirsch’s research. They’re not much better than placebo.
8. A nexus of psychedelics, suggestion, society, and culture.
Misc ideas - narratives shape us.
Introduction
Section titled “Introduction”Given context and suggestion - people won’t take your word that you’re performing a trick, they “hear and see what they think is happening.” (They stated this after performing a mentalism trick, clearly described as such, and people would speak with them as if they were gifted or clairvoyant.)
Raz’s credentials - masters in computational neuroscience, CS undergrad, PHD in cognitive psychology. Also a magician.
The book’s stated intention is to use science for change, protect against manipulative misinformation, and to provide tips on self regulation.
Ch1 - The Magic of Suggestion
Section titled “Ch1 - The Magic of Suggestion”When performing a mentalism trick, they use the following line…
“Don’t do it just yet because your choice should be completely free and entirely uninfluenced by me.”
Raz, A. (2024). The suggestible brain: The science and magic of how we make up our minds (First edition). Hachette Go, an imprint of Hachette Books.
In the book - they do the trick by producing a spread of five cards. They mention qualities of three of them, mention one of them in passing, and expect the participant to pick the one they said nothing about.
Russian hypnotist story. There’s a Russian hypnotist performing in an English speaking country, and thus they required a translator. The translator, well, translated into English, and the participants felt as if the translator was the one hypnotizing them, rather than the Russian performer. Even the translator felt a bit off about it - they eerily felt as if they were the one doing the hypnosis.
What’s the difference between suggestion and suggestibility?
- Overconfidence leads to underthinking.
- Some social situations make us more amenable to advice (eg - dating.)
- Suggestions have a cumulative and contextual effect.
- Suggestion is influential communication, regardless of the medium.
- Suggestibility indexes the ability/degree to accept/act/experience. They restate that being suggestible is not equivalent with being stupid.
- Guessing the cause/correlates of suggestibility is difficult, and is still being researched.
How do we measure suggestibility?
- (Ugh) - they mention Spiegel’s HIP eyeroll test. While they conclude this doesn’t align with other measurements, they argue for it’s heuristic and functional utility, being short and creating expectation.
- They cite Hilgard in passing mentioning suggestibility is likely a stable trait. (I have beef with that study, if I’m recalling the correct one.)
- They mention administering the HGSHS personally in Singapore - the participants were too polite to report the lack of suggestibility, so the measurements were inaccurate. They assert that scales are imperfect in general because they are still subject to social pressures.
Reminder to self - read “The Cultural Context of Hypnosis” in Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis.
- Initial studies showed little correlation between hypnotic and placebo response. Newer perspectives of placebo have been able to reconcile the differences. (The book does cite references here, and the chapter is well cited in general.)
Suggestible Wine
Personal thought - it may not be purely suggestion that influences the taste of wine, but the expectation and act of savoring. (There might be a controlled study here for someone to do. Or just an excuse to get sloshed.)
- There are top down effects on taste / flavor.
- Some people can get drunk on placebo lime tonics. (Or at least it shaped behavior. Citation 68.)
CH2 The Evolution of How and Why Humans Are Suggestible
Section titled “CH2 The Evolution of How and Why Humans Are Suggestible”Here Raz talks about culture and evolutionary psychology for a bit and doesn’t really get to brass tacks as to how it relates to suggestibility.
The intro mentions his kid (possibly) eating a chunk out of a broken metal knife. They both freaked out. His kid stopped feeling the pain in his throat immediately after finding out there was no metal in his system after an x-ray.
The evolutionary advantages of suggestibility - humans transmit ideas through information and culture.
Suggestion facilitates the cultural evolution of humans - while natural and sexual selection are important, social selection plays a role too. (How does this differ from sexual selection?) “Suggestion” also helps us collaborate, get along and share information.
Cultural Suggestions - they cite that Scandanavians are tall because “genetic, environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural influences” determine our height, and they have a healthy, chill life and culture. They suggest that, in combination with a genetic predisposition to be tall, their culture supports it. Maybe they were getting that short folks there are reproducing less? They mention “gene-culture coevolution” (dual inheritance theory) in passing.
Anyway. We learn shit from cultural exposure. I’m done with this chapter. I’m mad that I went down a rabbit hole and got beavers. I don’t even swing that way.
CH3 - Do honest scientists ever deceive in research
Section titled “CH3 - Do honest scientists ever deceive in research”The introduction of the chapter starts with a story about his grandfather experiencing night terrors. His grandfather was a physician in WWII, treating those who were abused by Josef Mengele.
Deceit, Consent, and Obedience - a short history lesson on how remarkably shitty researchers were to fellow humans up until the Institutional Review Board (IRB) tightened down in 1974. Conditions have improved since the 1980s.
Tricky Research - They name a group of “opponents” who believe any deception in research or treatment is unethical. Amir argues that closed label placebos can help people, and should be used in extreme circumstances. They also acknowledge it’s morally murky when the treatment goes poorly.
Magical Experiments - they explain a deceptive magic trick…
- They show participants a stack of photos, asking them if they find them attractive or unattractive. Hot folks go in one pile, scrubs go in another.
- They swap the piles of photos after they’re done when the participant isn’t looking.
- They then ask the opposite question - using the pile of unattractive people, why did you find this person attractive?
Allegedly, you can’t do this thing easily in academic research.
In another instance, they gave a post-hypnotic suggestion to participants to negate the Stroop effect, saying they’d see the words in another language. Participants were also able to easily follow this instruction without any hypnosis being involved. It improved Stroop interference scores in both cases.
Neuroenchantment - Raz conjured up a fake brain scanner prop.
- The machine could (allegedly) do some degree of mind reading, and was being tested.
- He used some of his students. He knew his students knew this was currently impossible because he explained this in a previous class. In addition, they also tested this on some high profile cognitive neuroscientists.
- They’d hype the machine up to participants.
- He’d ask the participants to write down a 2 digit number, a 3 digit number, a color, and a country, and then to place it hidden in their pocket.
- (He probably had a camera stuck somewhere so a confederate could copy down the information.)
- He ran the ‘brain scanner,’ and it correctly identified the information they wrote down. Participants were impressed.
- In another round, they said the brain scanner could influence thought. They repeated the process. For this one, they used a defunct MRI scanner.
- The participants felt their volition was influenced.
Raz recounts giving someone an “open label placebo,” saying the brain scanner could induce healing, but any healing would come from within. (Allegedly, pointing the attribution of healing to themselves.) It was able to help someone afflicted with an anxiety related skin condition and ADHD.
CH4 - Suggestion changes your physiology
Section titled “CH4 - Suggestion changes your physiology”- Study participants ingesting a deceptively labeled “high calorie” milkshake had a spike in ghrelin (controlling satiety) vs those drinking the same thing labeled “low calorie” - presented as health food.
- Blood sugar levels in diabetics are affected by the perception of time passing, not just time passing itself. Labels also affect diabetics as far as blood sugar levels go.
The Magician Scientist - 20% of individuals who show up for the treatment of seizures are non-epileptic, this can be tested via suggestion. (EG, an IV bag with nothing in it that’s “supposed to trigger seizures.”)
Simon Says - Psychogenic Tourettes (Functional Movement Disorder) can be subject to suggestion. Raz pulls off some antics to reduce someone’s symptoms. There was a fight over ethics shortly thereafter.
The Power of Suggestion - Warts and All - (Kinds of) warts respond well to suggestion/placebo. Spanos found warts respond well to hypnotic suggestion as well.
Conclusion - the brain is involved in immune response. In mice, the ventral tegmental area (VTA) appears to stimulate an immune response. The hypothalmus also appears to have something to do with it. The insula has ‘memories’ of gut inflammation - this could be why IBS generally responds well to placebo.
Ch5 - Can Clinical Suggestions Heal and Cure?
Section titled “Ch5 - Can Clinical Suggestions Heal and Cure?”This book isn’t bad or boring by any stretch of the imagination, I’m just not particularly motivated by the material in this chapter.
Included:
- Anecdotes on figuring out if a seizure is because of an FND or not.
- Asthma may (negatively) respond to suggestion.
- Placebo Lactaid works. So does thinking you ingested lactose when you didn’t (unfortunately.)
- False pregnancies happen.
In conclusion - top down expectations influence bottom-up experiences and physiology.
Ch6 - The reliable science of unreliable, suggestible memories
Section titled “Ch6 - The reliable science of unreliable, suggestible memories”Raz pulls off some ‘magic’ antics to make partial amends for some rugelach his friend stole as a kid.
I was already on my way to realizing that a good performance - whether in the context of a show, hypnosis session, social influence, transmission of incorrect information, or magical illusion - can render people, even if temporarily, more suggestible.
Raz, A. (2024). The suggestible brain: The science and magic of how we make up our minds (First edition). Hachette Go, an imprint of Hachette Books.
- memory is fallible - when we remember we amend and remove components.
Suggestible Memories - sometimes, people are gaslit (intentionally or unintentionally) into false memories through context and social pressure. Similarly, false convictions happen. A few culprits of memory corruption…
- Leading questions
- Slipping a false memory among true ones
…delusions, psychotherapy, imagination exercises, dream interpretation, hypnosis, exposure to false information, cannabis, or simply magic illusions…
Raz, A. (2024). The suggestible brain: The science and magic of how we make up our minds (First edition). Hachette Go, an imprint of Hachette Books.
- HSAMs (highly superior autobiographical memorists) are just as susceptible to memory modification. Memory modification happens in non-highly suggestible people.
From Hypothetical Questions to Powerful Suggestions and Established Memories - “If you learned that x, would you be willing to y.” Where X is a false premise - this can still influence behavior. Implication. “Push” polls distort facts effectively.
If you’re doing a magic trick, you can ‘contaminate’ (offhandedly mention or note) answers, making them less likely to be picked. Moreover, if you prepare for a show, you can say something to your participant, and the audience will get a different meaning. (EG - we’ve never met before today, yeah? You met just today - but the audience hears it as they’ve never met.)
Erickson would do this, allegedly…
As an example, say that you have a bunch of marbles only one of which is a solid color. You tell a child that you are going to write down on paper which marble he is going to choose. You take the position that you are going to predict and force the child to accept your choice. The child accepts the challenge and maintains that you cannot predict his choice. You then begin describing the various marbles as his possibilities: the blue one with white stripes, the brown and white, and so on. He hears you describing all the marbles in a seemingly random manner. He does not notice that you always pick a color combination. He can escape by picking a marble with no color combination—the solid color marble that you previously wrote down as his eventual choice.
Erickson, M. H., Rossi, E. L., & Rossi, S. I. (1992). Hypnotic realities: The induction of clinical hypnosis and forms of indirect suggestion (Reprint., 11. [print.]). Irvington.
Ch7 Do antidepressants “work” through suggestion?
Section titled “Ch7 Do antidepressants “work” through suggestion?”Mostly a retelling of Kirsch’s The Emperor’s New Drugs. They do chip in a positive nod towards psychedelics being researched for treating depression.
Ch8 A nexus of psychedelics, suggestion, society and culture
Section titled “Ch8 A nexus of psychedelics, suggestion, society and culture”- They present the “meaning effect”
- In Raz’s view - it’s the ability to assign and reassign value - eg - a meaningful drug trip changing attitudes and beliefs.
- The cited paper states meaning is unavoidable in human interaction, so the meaning effect is a more accurate name. It feels like a jingle-jangle rebrand of placebo.
- Raz says a lot of nice things about hallucinogens.
- Raz also states there’s suggestion in food and environment.
- They also say a supportive social environment is key in a “curative psychedelic experience.”
Psychedelics and Suggestion - Raz uses his own definition of suggestibility - where psychedelics can create lasting change, and increase suggestibility.
Other references - not from the book…
- Binaural Histolog mentions alcohol. A drink or two will do.
- hypnosisandsuggestion.com collected a few reports on drugs in general. I’d argue that they don’t increase suggestibility in general, but if the drug’s effects support the changes you’re trying to create, it might help.
- Zoltan Dienes talking about a study where they seemed to get participants absolutely plastered. 2.5 pints of beer would get me sloshed. IIRC the study focused on how automatic the suggestions felt.
Suggestion and Society/Culture - they (understandably) complain about humans being shitty to one another, mentioning that trauma victims often don’t remember accurately enough to get a conviction.
They also throw this goofy idea into the ring - in order to become “more resilient,” you can actively imagine your thoughts as available to the person you’re speaking with. I can’t see this doing much more than exacerbating anxiety.
They mention CBT is cool.
Mass suggestion and social contagion - sure, ideas spread. That’s what communication is. Psychogenic disease happens and oh god am I tired of hearing about people getting worse after seeing Dr. Reddit and co.
Trust me - it’s fake news - Raz started rumors of a paranormalist that erased a building once. They heard back, days later, that the rumor evolved - a sorcerer completely erased a building because they didn’t get paid for their services.
Individuals are predisposed to accept rumors and have false memories that are congruent with their motivations and identities.
Unsurprisingly - we ‘feel’ how true something is. This is malleable. (IMO - it’s unsurprising that emotion is a component of thinking and remembering, and thus bias. I can see how this extends to memory, though. )
And yes, the US is a hot mess politically. They suggest rumors and implication are a cost-effective way to manipulate opinions.
Suggestion and Social Justice - yup - we’re racist too. They suggest we express and call out racist views as unpopular, making it socially expensive to have them. (Which, sure, I like the sentiment, but I can see this backfiring in cases where it creates silos of isolated thought. I’m not trying to say just be cool with the bullshit, but I don’t think it’s a quick fix. Racism has been unpopular for a long time and we still see it all over the place.) Also - IIRC - the skin-color change experiments created temporary, not lasting change.
Suggestion, Magicians, and Scientists - Uh - scientists should talk more with magicians I guess.
Conclusions
Section titled “Conclusions”- Sure - reductionism has its problems. (But a free pass to engage with correlations to the level of bullshit is even worse, IMO.)
- They mention the boosted step counter - maybe just emotionally motivate people to take care of themselves?
- Tips - don’t read bullshit and believe everything you see on social media. Perhaps see ‘friction’ as new ideas and change happening. (Which… at this point in the book feels like hedging in the direction of research he wants to take.)
- Skepticism is healthy. (There’s no mention that never using heuristics in evaluation is impractical. Cialdini writes about this outside of this book.)
- Yeah - drug trips can give you insane-ass delusional thoughts, so treat them with care.
- They want to study “gray area” (deception overlapping) phenomena.
This book felt incredibly empty. Maybe I read too much, but it felt like just a rehash of what’s known in pop-psy with some weird evolutionary psychology thrown in. I wasn’t surprised by anything in here, and some of the ideas felt ‘off.’