Trying Not to Think About a Failure: How to Escape from Unwanted Thoughts

When faced with a failure, thought suppression may appear to be a viable coping strategy, especially when plagued with aversive thoughts about the setback. However, thought suppression can deplete regulatory resources, impairing subsequent regulatory ability. Previous research has demonstrated the depleting effect of thought suppression, but has been silent on how or why it occurs. Thought suppression includes two processes: monitoring consciousness for the possible entrance of the unwanted thought and finding distracting thoughts to replace the unwanted ones. We propose, and provide evidence across four studies, that it is the effort required to search for a sufficiently distracting thought after an intrusion by the unwanted thought that causes depletion. Implications for consumers, marketers, and thought suppression research more generally, are discussed.