Miller-McCune points to a study that tests whether not thinking about a cigarette actually leads to more smoking for those trying to quit.

Each day for three weeks, participants recorded the number of cigarettes they smoked that day, as well as their stress level. One week into the experiment, one-third of the smokers were asked to “try not to think about smoking. If you do happen to have thoughts about smoking this week, please try to suppress them.” Another third were instructed to think about smoking as frequently as possible during the week. The final third received neither instruction.

But…

During that second week, “the suppression group smoked considerably less than both the expression group (those encouraged to think about smoking) and the control group,” the researchers reported. But the situation reversed itself in Week Three, as those in the suppressed-thoughts group smoked considerably more than those in the other two categories.

What does all this mean? It suggests that, for many of us, we want want we want. Rationalization and “creating awareness” about the ills of smoking are of limited effectiveness when confronted with an urge. This suggests that a suppresed urge returns in spades. Much of social science has focused on rationality to explain social behavior, largely because urges and impulses were more difficult to study empirically.

How many of you have been able to overcome a bad habit and/or an addiction through suppression? Why doesn’t it work as a technique?