Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧠 Involuntary action 🧠 Unconscious movement
ideomotor

ideomotor

1 9.9
A small movement of the body caused by a thought and not done on purpose
  • noun
  • /ˌaɪdiˈmoʊtər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : movimiento ideomotor
  • It simply states that people will seek an end state of comfort if not compelled to do otherwise (a documented phenomenon called the end state comfort effect), that the mechanism of action is ideomotor movement (again documented), that a non-threatening context is necessary for expression toward this end state (consistent with placebo research, for example), and that manual contact is one method (but not the only way) of communicating this context.

Examples

  • Anyways, we are far off track, but I'm not advocating any gibberish, and your arguments on the safety and efficacy of SMT for spinal pain far exceed the evidence of the ideomotor response in treating spinal pain.

    Blog text (13)

  • Brown went on to explain some of the manipulations he had used, including the photograph positioning and instructions and the use of the ideomotor effect during the Ouija board scene.

    Blog text (16)

  • It's known as the ideomotor effect.

    Ouija (2014)

  • The study may have triggered the ideomotor effect whereby small muscles

    Blog text (25)

  • Its theoretical antecedents are traceable to the late nineteenth century, when W.B. Carpenter postulated the "ideomotor principle," which suggests that any idea occupying the mind will also be expressed in the muscles.

    Academic text (1991)

  • The magician used the ideomotor effect to make the audience believe they were moving the object on the table.

  • During the séance, participants unintentionally caused the planchette to move, demonstrating the ideomotor phenomenon.

  • Scientists often study the ideomotor response to understand how suggestion can influence physical actions.

Synonyms

automatism
vsideomotor
  • Specialized
1 9.9

Actions done without thinking, often during a seizure or while sleepwalking

is involuntary movements specifically triggered by ideas or suggestions rather than general automatic acts
ideomotion
vsideomotor
  • Specialized
9.9

A body movement that happens without thinking because of an idea or suggestion

is the same idea but expressed by a different technical term

How Involuntary

reflex
54 3.7
ideomotor
  • Specialized
1 9.9

Surface Forms

ideomotor singular
ideomotors plural

Morphology

ideomotor = motor (semi-transparent) = ideo + motor

As a noun denoting an involuntary movement, the formation is technical and requires knowledge of the combining form 'ideo-'; 'motor' is familiar but the compound is somewhat specialized.

Etymology

Ideomotor is built from ideo- 'idea' and motor 'to move', like the motor that makes a machine go. So an ideomotor is a small, involuntary movement that comes from a thought or a suggestion.