Just take my answer as educated guess, for I only studied the therapeutic use of hypnosis :
It could break hypnosis, as any failure to answer may, or the person could simply answer that they don’t know who you’re talking about, or even not respond at all.
I think it would also be possible for the person hypnotized to use the name of the person to build a false mental image (based on sonority, quasi homonyms..), but I would rule it as being very unlikely.
I can answer as someone who was hypnotized and told to perform two different things I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t intentional on the part of the hypnotist, I guess they assumed they were things “everyone would know”. What I did: faked it in character. I was still in a hypnotic state. Being hypnotised to me was like an extremely vivid and immersive game of make-believe. So when I say I faked it, I don’t mean I just pretended to know for the sake of the audience or myself, I mean I tried to come up with an in-world solution as my “character” similar to how you might fumble your way through something in the real world that you didn’t fully understand.
One example was we were embodying a certain celebrity and then told we were about to go onstage and perform a certain song. I knew the celebrity but not the song. I was freaking out inside my mind at first like “oh my God I forgot my song! What do I do?” Then I came up with idea of going out there and just singing any song/words that came to mind or lip syncing, figuring if I was confident enough about it, no one would even notice.
The other was an object we were supposed to (pretend) to use but I didn’t know what it was. I just made a guess about what I thought it was and went with that (I was wrong lol)
There could be different reactions though – I had a friend who was hypnotized as well (different time). This hypnotist sent the volunteers back into the audience with a “celebrity identity” and they were supposed to stand up and do an impression of their celebrity later in the show when he called on them. I think my friend either didn’t know the celebrity or exited the hypnotic state for other reasons so he just walked away after he was sent back to the audience (never could get a straight answer from him about what was going through his head).
You can only go into a hypnotic state willingly so most of the time they will probably try to come up with something to meet the prompt, even if it is wrong (which is usually pretty funny anyway). It depends on the person and the prompt though. I could see how someone might just not outwardly react at all if they couldnt figure it out.
You can’t be hypnotized, by any definition of the word, into doing something you have no information on. There is no psychic transfer of information- you have to know it or explicitly be told. If somewhere were truly in a hypnotic state, they’d either guess or not do anything.
Speaking as someone who was “hypnotized” at a show, I remember just feeling the pressure to go along with it in front of the audience so I clucked like a chicken when given that instruction. I figured I’d play along because it’s entertainment and no one wants to be the one to kill the magic just like no one wants to tell children about Santa.
I don’t actually believe in hypnosis any more than I believe people who think they’re drinking a lot believe they’re drunk (and act like it) even if their beverage is super weak. The power of suggestion is a lot stronger than many of us realize.
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