Nexilist Notebook

1) Paradoxical effect: There is a paradoxical effect when someone tries not to think about something. If you tell someone not to think about a white elephant, part of their mind starts monitoring the subject of their thoughts to see if white elephant thoughts occur. If they do this on a regular basis, they can keep thoughts of white elephants to a minimum but every now and then, a white elephant thought will spontaneously pop up.

2) Extrinsic and Intrinsic motivation: You may be extrinsically motivated by something such as ideology and public scrutiny to banish unwanted thoughts or you may be intrinsically motivated by your own deep feelings to banish unwanted thoughts.

3) Extrinsic motivation and Ego Depletion: If you resist unwanted thoughts out of extrinsic motivation, then you will have trouble keeping them away if your ego becomes depleted by exerting effort to adhere to extrinsic motivations.

4) Intrinsic motivation and unconscious goal seeking: If the thoughts that you seek to banish are actually in line with intrinsic motivation, then there may be unconscious processes going on that are driving you in the direction of those consciously banished thoughts.

5) Priming effect: When we encounter an external reminder or experience a memory or thought that relates to a goal, either conscious or unconscious, we are more likely to seek that goal.

6) Out of the public eye: If we have worn out our will power on extrinsic motivations, and have been avoiding an intrinsically desirable thought, that thought will come into our mind unbidden. If we are out of the public eye and in a position to act upon that hidden desire, the odds are we will be tempted and might succumb to acting on that thought.

7) Smart people do stupid things: And so, we may find ourselves doing that very thing that we publicly denounced and consciously tried to avoid, much to our surprise and horror.