Effect "White Bear"

Daniel Wegner, a researcher at the University of Virginia at the time, is known for an experience of 1987, which highlights some aspects of intrusive thoughts and how they may turn into obsessions, an important point for study of OCD (obsessive compulsive).

Wegner asked participants to say, for 5 minutes, everything was going through their head. As a group, especially not asked to think of a polar bear (read the article by Wegner, 1987). In another, among other things to think about a white bear. The results are that participants often cite the polar bear when you ask them not to think that when they are told to think. This "ironic effect" (read this article Wegner, 1994) explains why the intrusive thoughts can become true obsession: trying not to think about it, it reinforces them.

In another experiment, Wegner shows that an effective strategy is to set a specific distractor: it has got less polar bears by asking participants to think of a red car at the prospect that the bear stood . Jacques van Rillaer exposes French experiences in a recent article published in Science and pseudo-science.