최면수사에 관한 문화적 견해와 태도

Cultural Views and Attitudes about Hypnotic Investigation

본 연구는 최면수사에 관한 문화적 견해와 태도를 알아보고자 대학생 70명을 선정하여 최면수사에 관한 인식을 살펴보았으며 이 결과를 토대로 미국, 독일, 호주, 이란의 대학생들이 인식하고 있는 최면수사에 관한 인식의 기존 연구와 비교하였다. 연령은 18세에서 25세 미만의 대학생들을 대상으로 최면수사 인식척도를 작성하도록 하였다. 최면수사에 관한 견해와 태도는 최면현상에 관한 잘못된 인식과 더불어 최면수사에 대한 인식은 긍정적인 것으로 밝혀졌으며 많은 항목에서 차이가 나타나지 않았으나 국가별 차이가 나타나 문화적 차이점을 발견하였다. 이러한 결과들은 최면이해에 대한 최면수사에 필요한 정보를 제공하는 선구적 연구로서 의의를 지니며 일반인들이 최면수사에 관해 어떤 인식과 어떤 오해를 갖고 있는 지를 미리 파악함으로서 수사기관들이 최면수사를 실시하는데 실제적인 시사점을 주었다.

The present investigation surveyed attitudes and beliefs about hypnotic investigation. This article presents data on the Korean translation of the Beliefs about Forensic Hypnosis(BAFH) as administered to Korean subjects. The results are compared with data from countries in which the U.S., Germany, Iran, Australia. A total of 70 undergraduate students(21 males and 49 females), ranging in age from 18 to 25 years, completed BAFH questionnaires assessing their opinions and beliefs about hypnotic investigation. Interesting area involves the items linking hypnosis, memory recall, and truth-telling. Across our five groups, a majority of participants reported that suggestions "hypnosis can help someone remember something that they could not remember otherwise"(92%, agreed; #1); that "people cannot lie under hypnosis."(62%, agreed; #2); and that "hypnosis is a good technique for police to use to refresh witnesses memory"(64%, agreed; #3). Additionally a significant minority of participants reported that "Jurors listening to a trial should have more faith in the testimony of someone who had been hypnotized as compared to that same testimony from someone who had not been hypnotized."(37% agreed; #4), and that "a witness should have more confidence in the accuracy of memories elicited by hypnosis than those remembered while in the normal state"(46% agreed; #5). The common perception that hypnosis guarantees truth-telling, ensures accuracy of memory recall or is a valid forensic tool for discerning truth from fiction is discouraging, albiet not suprising given the typical Hollywood portrayal of hypnosis within moves and across popular media. Although responses to some items varied by country, there was remarkable similarity across many items suggesting that certain views and attitudes about hypnotic investigation are culture specific. Also, females showed higher hypnotic attitude than males in many studies, in the present study males and females showed essentially the same attitude. Our findings regarding group differences would need to be replicated, preferably with several randomly selected samles within each country, before any meaningful conclusions about cultural differences can be made.