Whatever you do, don’t think of a white bear. Do whatever
you want and think about whatever you want – Just so long as it isn’t a white
bear. Close your eyes and just relax, but don’t think of a white bar. I imagine, right now, many of those of you
reading this are thinking of a certain pale four legged ursidae. This illustrates the common phenomenon, known as the White Bear Principle. This principle describes what happens when we try to suppress our thoughts. Once we try to not think of
something specific, we often find we think about it all the time. This paradox can contribute to such problems
as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD), and depression and is one of the hallmarks of obsessive-compulsive
disorder (OCD).
In a study by Wegner (2011), two groups of people were told
to verbalize their thoughts for five minutes.
One group was told not to think of a white beat, the other group was
told they could do so. All participants
were to press a counter each time they thought of the bear. There was no difference between the groups
suggesting that efforts to suppress the thought was not effective.
The really interesting thing about this experiment however,
was shown in the second part when all subjects were told they could think of
the white bear. Those who had been in the
suppression group previously, thought of the bear at a much higher rate than
the other subjects. It appears that the
act of suppression can have a rebound effect when the person stops trying to
suppress the thought.
This rebound effect has interesting implications for a
variety of situations in which we try to suppress our thoughts. Consider
someone who is dieting and has a terrible sweet tooth such that they have to
constantly tell themselves not to eat their favorite cakes and cookies. Wegner’s study suggests that if they tell
themselves it is okay to cheat a little on a special occasion it is possible
they may suddenly have a host of uncontrollable thoughts suggesting that it is
okay to indulge which throws off their diet entirely. A better way of handling thoughts that we
want to control may be to use intentional distraction to take our mind off of
the thought instead of trying to suppress it.
References
Wegner, D. M. (2011). Setting free the bears: escape from
thought suppression. American Psychologist, 66(8), 671.
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