Monitor on Psychology - October 2011 - (Page 45) Meditation,
mindfulness and other tools can help us avoid unwanted thoughts,
says social psychologist Daniel Wegner. BY LEA W INERM A N •
Monitor staff ry to pose for yourself this task: not to think of
a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come
to mind every minute.” That observation comes from “Winter Notes
on Summer Impressions,” Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1863 account of his
travels in Western Europe. But the research that proved it true
came more than a century later, from the lab of social
psychologist Daniel Wegner, PhD. Wegner, a psychology professor
at Harvard University and the founding father of thought
suppression research, first came across the quote more than 25
years ago. “I was really taken with it,” he said in a talk at
APA’s 2011 Annual Convention. “It seemed so true.” He decided to
test the quote’s assumption with a simple experiment: He asked
participants to verbalize their stream of consciousness for five
minutes, while trying