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thought
You are blind to the persistence of your own thoughts.
The harder you attempt to suppress a specific thought, the more frequently it enters your awareness.
Suppression requires you to monitor your mind for the presence of that thought. This monitoring process keeps the thought active in your working memory. The very mechanism designed to banish the idea ensures it remains at the front of your consciousness.
You cannot stop thinking about a secret without constantly reminding yourself what that secret is.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Wegner et al., 1987, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- What the check found
- The claim accurately describes the Ironic Process Theory established in the cited paper. The quote is sourced from the original Wegner et al. (1987) publication.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.