Pushkin Back in 1863, the Russian novelist Dostoevsky gave his readers a challenge,
one which I'm going to argue has a huge impact on happiness.
Try to pose for yourself this task, he wrote, not to think of a polar bear.
So for the next few seconds, let's do it.
Let's not think of a white bear.
Ready?
Go!
How'd you do?
My guess is that even though you were trying not to think of a white bear,
your mind immediately went to thoughts of a white bear.
That's what Dostoevsky realized.
He warned that when you try not to think of something,
you will see that cursed thing come to mind every minute.
The Harvard psychologist, Dan Wegner, was interested in these effects,
which he referred to as ironic processes.
Cases where our minds, ironically enough, go to the exact place where we don't want them to go.
Wendner created a version of Dostoevsky's polar bear challenge as an experiment with college students.
He asked them to speak their stream of consciousness for five minutes.
Living with my boyfriend right now, so I didn't have to...
That sunburn, and I didn't want to be out in the sun.