Suppressing unwanted thoughts ironically increases their accessibility and causes projection onto others.

Evidence

When individuals confront evidence indicating they may not be the type of people they want to be, they might attempt to suppress thoughts of that evidence. But research by Wegner and colleagues (e.g., Wegner, 1992) indicates that actively trying to keep a thought out of awareness can backfire; suppression of a thought can ironically increase the accessibility of that thought. The frequency with which unwanted thoughts are activated causes them to become chronically accessible (Higgins, 1989) and to therefore dominate people’s perceptions of others, resulting in projection. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2355

Categorization

• XREF: Wegner’s ironic process theory of thought suppression — connects to the literature on intrusive thoughts and mental control. — connects to: Projection converts taboo inner impulses into perceived external enemies — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 152
• SEED: Angle: ‘The ironic backfire of suppression’ — how attempts to police one’s own mind (from dieting to prejudice) reliably produce the opposite effect, with the projection mechanism as the sharpest case.
• DEEPTHINKING: The mechanism — suppression increasing accessibility, making chronically accessible constructs dominate perception — is a genuinely non-obvious causal chain worth sitting with.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2355