Unwitting Victims of Hyper-Suggestibility

Victims of Hyper-Suggestibility?

Just when I was starting to worry that I still had no idea what to write about for today’s blog, inspiration struck when I heard a news report about a very unusual prank that happened yesterday in Minneapolis. Apparently, someone called a Burger King restaurant under the guise of warning the workers that there was a dangerous gas leak that could blow up the building. The caller reportedly advised the manager that this disaster could be prevented by smashing all of the windows to ventilate the building and clear out the gas. Ultimately, the workers broke all of the windows as the caller instructed them to do. At least one person reportedly went along with this action out of fear and, significantly, because everyone else was doing it.

The hosts of a popular radio show I was listening to immediately started to crack up and even make jokes about the employees who fell for this prank. I, on the other hand, felt sorry and a little sad about what happened to these workers. After all, they took this drastic action in the belief that it was the correct and even heroic thing to do to save their place of employment. Answering a phone call in which the person at the other end of the line warns that you are at risk of being caught in a gas explosion would make most people nervous and hyper-suggestible.

Based on what I know about suggestibility and behavior, this is how the scenario played out in an employee’s subconscious mind:

·         The work environment in a fast-food restaurant is usually very busy. Even if there weren’t throngs of customers present when the call came in, the employees were probably still in a state of natural hypnosis. In addition to dealing with the public, the repetitive action of flipping burgers, packaging the meals and counting change (stimuli overload) would make anyone extremely suggestible.

·         In addition, the smell of food cooking might or even the time of day when the person “typically” eats could have triggered a hunger response in one or more of these individuals. As I wrote in my previous blog titled Nutrition and the Development of Phobias, low blood-sugar levels, which are associated with hunger can exacerbate or even cause a person’s presenting problem (behavior or belief). Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., reported that it is also common for a person to experience psychological symptoms such as depression, paranoia, irritability and memory problems when blood-sugar levels drop.

·         The three principles of hypnotic modalities also played a role in influencing the employees' reaction. First: The purported identity of the person on the phone was a posing as a firefighter (authority). Second: The potential validity of the warning of an impending explosion, unless the employees followed the caller’s instructions (the message). Third: The official-sounding voice and the terrifying content of this warning ultimately influenced (overload) how the employees responded to this threat. Most people trust firefighters: they rush into burning buildings to save lives, they rescue kittens stuck in high trees. The fallout from the 2010 gas explosion that took out an entire neighborhood in San Bruno, California, is still being felt in that community. So when a fireman contacts your place of business to help you avert a similar tragedy, wouldn’t you give him the benefit of the doubt? At least, at first?

·         Finally, the collective worry and panic that this threat would come true became its own destructive force. Have you have ever found yourself standing up and joining other fans do “the wave” at a sports event, without knowing why you’re doing it? Have ever wondered at the influence that one fussy toddler has, to be able to inspire just about every other baby in a room to join in the cacophony of screaming? Anxiety breeds anxiety, and when threat to life, limb and financial security are involved natural skepticism that would have otherwise prevented such an extreme reaction often goes out the window. In this instance, this metaphor became a reality.

Yes, logic, reasoning and good judgement probably would have made at least one of these employees question the veracity of this warning. But when you are working at a busy fast-food restaurant for minimum-wage pay and suddenly learn that your source of income—and you—could blow up “unless,” it’s a little easier to understand the employees’ reaction. Unfortunately, the collective hyper-suggestibility of these individuals also made them the brunt of two cruel jokes: that of the original prank caller(s) and the radio hosts.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

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