Journey 10 · Surrender
Pushing a Thought Away Can Bring It Back
People told not to think of a white bear later thought of it more than those told to think of it first; across controlled studies, the rebound is small to moderate.
In a classic experiment, Daniel Wegner and colleagues asked people to think aloud for five minutes while trying not to think of a white bear, ringing a bell whenever it came to mind. They could not keep it out. Asked afterwards to think about the bear, they thought of it more than people told to think about it from the start. In a second experiment, giving people one specific thing to think about instead reduced that rebound.
A later meta-analysis of controlled studies found the rebound real but modest, small to moderate, and found no reliable surge while people were actively suppressing. So not every pushed-away thought grows; how much one returned varied with the kind of thought and how it was measured. Still, fighting a thought is not the same as being free of it.
Journey 10, Surrender, puts this in a picture: a feather held too tightly crumples. Its Three-A Process asks you to meet an unwelcome thought with acceptance, letting it be there, rather than wrestling it out of mind. That step is the journey's practice, not something these studies tested. Which thought have you been pushing hardest against lately?
The research
Strong evidence Replicated findings and meta-analyses.
- Wegner, D. M., Schneider, D. J., Carter, S. R., III, & White, T. L. (1987). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(1), 5–13.
- Abramowitz, J. S., Tolin, D. F., & Street, G. P. (2001). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression: A meta-analysis of controlled studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 21(5), 683–703.
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