PLATE XI   Not a white bear. A green tiger, on purpose.

NOTE 10 · CHAPTER III

The green tiger

HABITAT    Wandering minds, sleepless nights, unwanted thoughts

Told not to think about a white bear, people in a 1987 experiment thought of it about once a minute, and more often once they were allowed to again. Part of the mind keeps checking whether the thought is gone, and the checking brings it back. One chosen substitute helped: people given a red Volkswagen to think about instead had fewer bears return.22 Later work found that concentrating on something absorbing beat trying not to think at all.23