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Summoning White Bears or Letting Them Free: The Influence of the Content of Control Instructions on Target Thought Frequency

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Abstract

In the clinical literature, thought suppression is considered to play a role in the development of intrusion-related psychiatric syndromes, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute or posttraumatic stress disorder, phobias, and addiction. This assumption goes back to a study by D. M. Wegner, D. J. Schneider, S. R. Carter, and T. L. White (1987) in which participants were asked to suppress thoughts of a white bear, an assignment that proved to be nearly impossible to complete. The present two studies sought to explore the influence of the content of control instructions on intrusion frequency in thought suppression experiments. Notably, during nonsuppression (i.e., control) periods, participants can either be instructed to think about white bears (i.e., expression instruction), or to think of anything including white bears (i.e., liberal instruction). Results indicated that expression instructions resulted in an increased number of target thoughts, while liberal instructions did not. Implications for the interpretation of thought suppression findings are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Sciences (Psychology Institute), Erasmus University, P.O. Box 1738, 3000, DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Eric Rassin, Peter Muris, Jeffrey Jong & Gwendolijn de Bruin

  2. Faculty of Law, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Eric Rassin

Authors
  1. Eric Rassin
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  2. Peter Muris
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  3. Jeffrey Jong
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  4. Gwendolijn de Bruin
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Correspondence to Eric Rassin.

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Rassin, E., Muris, P., Jong, J. et al. Summoning White Bears or Letting Them Free: The Influence of the Content of Control Instructions on Target Thought Frequency. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 27, 253–258 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-005-2405-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-005-2405-9

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