Final answer:
Individuals who are truly hypnotized experience a dissociated state of consciousness, different from pretenders who act out a social role without actual changes in consciousness. Pretenders may perform what they believe is expected of a person being hypnotized, while truly hypnotized individuals exhibit a detachment from their immediate sensory experiences.
Step-by-step explanation:
Pretenders hold more strongly to a double reality :
One major difference between people pretending to be hypnotized and those who are actually hypnotized is that pretenders hold more strongly to a double reality than those who are truly hypnotized. Individuals who are truly under hypnosis experience a dissociated state of consciousness where their awareness is altered, which is not the case for those merely pretending. On the other hand, those pretending may act out the social role they believe corresponds to being hypnotized but do not experience an actual change in consciousness.
In hypnosis, the participant's consciousness changes, and they may experience things like pain differently, as shown in experiments such as Hilgard's ice water test, where participants reported not feeling pain despite reacting to it. This illustrates the dissociative aspect of hypnosis. Conversely, pretenders are more likely to conform to social expectations of how a hypnotized person should act, without any real alteration in their conscious experience.