Paradoxical effects of thought suppression.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology July 1, 1987 D M Wegner, D J Schneider, S R Carter et al.
In a first experiment, subjects verbalizing the stream of consciousness for a 5-min period were asked to try not to think of a white bear, but to ring a bell in case they did. As indicated both by mentions and by bell rings, they were unable to suppress the thought as instructed. On being asked after this suppression task to think about the white bear for a 5-min period, these subjects showed...