Don’t think of a white bear.
Can you go one minute without thinking of a white bear?
Original study
- Wegner, D. M., Schneider, D. J., Carter, S. R., III, & White, T. L. (1987). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(1), 5–13. Source
- Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101(1), 34–52. Source
- Abramowitz, J. S., Tolin, D. F., & Street, G. P. (2001). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression: A meta-analysis of controlled studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 21(5), 683–703. Source
- Wang, D. A., Hagger, M. S., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. D. (2020). Ironic effects of thought suppression: A meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(3), 778–793. Source
Our adaptation
A short adaptation of the thought suppression experiment of Wegner et al. (1987). In the two-minute experiment the participant tries not to think of a white bear for one minute and is free for one minute; in both minutes they press the single on-screen button whenever a white bear comes to mind. Half the participants suppress first and half are free first (randomized with a personal seed). Each minute is split into six 10-second bins; at the end the strategy used is asked.
Differences from the original study
- Periods last one minute instead of five.
- Participants do not think aloud; they only press a button.
- The free minute does not instruct 'think of a white bear'; it only lifts the restriction.
Measured variables
The columns of the open data file. List fields are expanded into numbered columns (for example rt_60, est_3); JSON columns contain only numbers and fixed stimulus names.
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
cond | sup | free | Group: sup = suppression first, free = free first. |
presses | JSON | Press times: [[minute 1 ms…], [minute 2 ms…]]. |
away_1 | number | Time away from the tab in each minute (ms). (item 1) |
away_2 | number | Time away from the tab in each minute (ms). (item 2) |
strategy | focus | jump | none | other | Strategy used: focus = focused on something else, jump = jumped between topics, none = did nothing special, other = other. |
n_1 | number | Presses per minute (n_1 = minute 1, n_2 = minute 2). (item 1) |
n_2 | number | Presses per minute (n_1 = minute 1, n_2 = minute 2). (item 2) |
n_suppress | integer | Presses in the suppression minute. |
n_free | integer | Presses in the free minute. |
bins | JSON | Presses in 10-second bins (12 bins: minute 1, then minute 2). |
clean | 0 | 1 | Did not leave the tab for more than 3 seconds (1 = clean). |
Columns present in every file (14)
row_id | string | Row code. Regenerated at random in every release; it does not identify a person and cannot be matched across releases or experiments. |
experiment | string | Short name of the experiment (URL slug). |
experiment_version | integer | Version of the answer format. For experiments whose format changed, only the current format is published. |
date | YYYY-MM-DD | YYYY-Www | YYYY-MM | Day the answer was given (Istanbul time). If fewer than 5 answers share the same day, language and device, it is coarsened to the ISO week, and to the month if that is still too few. |
date_precision | day | week | month | Precision of the date column. |
lang | tr | en | (boş) | Interface language. Language recording started in the first week of October 2026; for earlier answers it is known only in experiments whose stimuli depend on the language, and empty otherwise. |
device | desktop | mobile | tablet | (boş) | Device class reported by the browser (class only; browser details are neither stored here nor published). |
source | site | embed | Where the answer came from: the balabs site or the experiment embedded on another site. The embedding site is not published. |
mode | free | daily | challenge | race | session | (boş) | Play mode in scored experiments: free play, daily round, challenge, race room, experiment session. Empty for unscored experiments and for older answers that did not store it. |
color_vision | normal | rg | by | contrast | (boş) | In color-based experiments, the color vision mode the participant chose: normal, red-green, blue-yellow or high contrast. Stimuli are generated along different axes per mode, so compare within a mode. Empty for other experiments. |
first_play | 1 | Every row is a participant’s first play of this experiment (always 1). Replays are stored only as leaderboard scores and are not part of the open data. |
seen_before | yes | no | unsure | (boş) | Participant’s own report of whether they had seen this experiment or its known answer before (in experiments that ask). |
duration_s | number | Time from the start of the experiment to submitting the answer, in seconds (measured in the browser, 0.1 s). |
play_score | number | Leaderboard score of the first play (scored experiments; defined on the method card). Empty for unscored experiments. |
Exclusion criteria
The server checks the group, the press times of both minutes (0–61.5 s) and the press cap. Plays with clean = 0 are kept apart in the crowd comparison; we recommend doing the same.
- Only each participant's first answer to this experiment; replays are not included.
- Simulated rows, bots, banned and sample accounts are not included.
- Answers before 3 October 2026 are not included (the first day the open data notice was live).
Scoring
This experiment has no leaderboard score. The main comparisons are between groups: the immediate effect of suppression in the first minute and the rebound in the free minute after suppression.
Version notes
- October 2026
The interface language (lang) started being stored with each answer; for earlier answers it is known only in experiments whose stimuli depend on the language, and empty otherwise.