Inhibition of thinking has the effect of increasing desire conversely

Things that think that it is "Do not eat" and "Let's reduce the amount of rice" to cut off custom made actions that I want to improve, such as eating too much sweets and rice. However, the more you think about it, the more you will not be able to put up with it, and you will end up with the original custom after all. According to psychologists it is pointed out that if you have restrained thinking such as "you should not eat", it will lead to an increase in desire, and it will be counterproductive.

Do not Think About It | Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-mishaps/201009/dont-think-about-it

Resistance Is Futile. To Change Habits, Try Replacement Instead. - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/your-money/resistance-is-futile-to-change-habits-try-replacement-instead.html

"Whatever happens, please never think about polar bear"


If people told you like this, you should imagine 'Polar bear' on the contrary. this isIronic process theoryIt is said that having suppressed thinking such as "stop" to cut off a bad habit is not going to be ahead of it and it will be counterproductive.

University of LondonIn the work of Mr. James Erskine et al., Experiments demonstrating the sarcastic process theory are being conducted. In this experiment, about 120 subjects were divided into "Team thinking about chocolate" "Team thinking to suppress chocolate" "Team thinking about whatever you do not give restriction" Let me write a report that follows the theme of our team. After that, he said he asked each team to issue chocolate in front of him and record the taste evaluation.


The purpose of this experiment was not to examine the content of the report and the evaluation of taste, but to see which teams eat chocolate. As a result, "team thinking to suppress chocolate" was the most likely to have eaten chocolate. In other words, it has been shown that there is a tendency to strongly seek out by suppressing thinking.

Financial PlannerCarl Richards introduces the episode that his friend abandoned "suppression of thinking" and bad habits have ceased.

Mr. Richards's friends changed their bad habits, so whenever they felt the urge to act, they seemed to have told themselves "to bear", "to endure", "to endure". However, no matter how long it will be, I can not see any signs of improvement, so when I feel the impulse, I changed it to "drink water". Then, the impulse gradually relaxed, and it seems that I was able to finally overcome bad habits.


Richards says if it wants to change a bad habit, it is recommended not to resist the impulse, but to replace it with something else.