Psychologist says that thought suppression leads to rebellion
by Jura Watchmaker, 24 October 2007
Here’s one for the Gadgie…
A researcher at Hatfield Poly (er … the University of Hertfordshire) has discovered that suppressing thoughts can lead people to do exactly what they are trying to avoid.
In study published as “Resistance can be futile investigating behavioural rebound”, psychologist James Erskine looked at the effect of thought suppression on individuals’ actions. He found that mental self-denial in the case of chocolate craving led both men and women to eat more chocolate.
And it’s not just the sweet gooey stuff. “…does trying not to think about having another drink make it more likely, or does trying not to think, or to think aggressively lead to aggressive behaviour?” asks Dr Erskine. “These questions are vitally important if we are to understand the ways in which thought control engenders the very behaviour one wanted to avoid.”
So the answer, boys and girls, is let to it all hang out, and don’t fret about it.
Thursday 25 October 2007 at 8:49
Wow. Monbiot is a Diet Catholic. All the guilt with none of the God.
His street cred as a biological determinst is crap if he thinks that cooperation isn’t the dominant paradigm of all advanced creatures. If humans aren’t inherently cooperative, without a law to make it so, then why is it that there are no successful enclaves of anarchists? If you study quorum response, you find cooperative behavior amongst bacteria.
Remove the word government and replace it with God, and Monbiot is a theocrat. Man is wretched, a higher power must save us.
Thursday 25 October 2007 at 9:32
Solution: start to deny your cravings to exercise?
Thursday 25 October 2007 at 12:41
Wonderful. Pass me a beer.
Thursday 25 October 2007 at 16:18
On a more serious note, anyone who has engaged with dieting will know the food obsession that results.
On a less serious note, what a wonderful example of Bakunin’s insistence on the existence of a basic human instinct to rebel.
Thursday 25 October 2007 at 21:04
Ach… truer words were never said.
Cheers all.