How to think, say, or do precisely the worst thing for any occasion.

Full Abstract

In slapstick comedy, the worst thing that could happen usually does: The person with a sore toe manages to stub it, sometimes twice. Such errors also arise in daily life, and research traces the tendency to do precisely the worst thing to ironic processes of mental control. These monitoring processes keep us watchful for errors of thought, speech, and action and enable us to avoid the worst thing in most situations, but they also increase the likelihood of such errors when we attempt to exert control under mental load (stress, time pressure, or distraction). Ironic errors in attention and memory occur with identifiable brain activity and prompt recurrent unwanted thoughts; attraction to forbidden desires; expression of objectionable social prejudices; production of movement errors; and rebounds of negative experiences such as anxiety, pain, and depression. Such ironies can be overcome when effective control strategies are deployed and mental load is minimized.

Author information

Author/s: Wegner, Daniel M (DM);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. wegner(-atsign-)wjh.harvard.edu

Grants: MH 49127 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Review

Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.) (Science), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jul; vol 325 (issue 5936) : pp 48-50

Dates: Created 2009/07/03; Completed 2009/07/15;

PMID: 19574380, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 7/24/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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