The idea that thought suppression creates a unique bond between the suppressed item and one's mood state, such that the reactivation of one leads to the reinstatement of the other, was examined. In Experiment 1, subjects who were induced by music to experience positive or negative moods reported their thoughts while trying to think or not think about a white bear. When all subjects were subsequently asked to think about a white bear, those who were in similar moods during thought suppression

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... later expression displayed a particularly strong rebound of the suppressed thought. In Experiment 2, subjects' moods following the expression of a previously suppressed or expressed thought were assessed. Analysis of the mood reports showed that subjects who had initially tried to suppress their thoughts experienced a reinstatement of the mood state that existed during the initial period of suppression. Suppressing a thought, at least on the face of it, seems uncomplicated enough. All one needs to do is think of other things. Unfortunately, people often find suppression so difficult that they need to think of other things again and again. As each new distracter fails, they keep trying to find new ones, and in this process they sample an unusually wide selection of the experiences and memories that are currently on their minds. Often these efforts to suppress thoughts coincide with strong emotional states, and people's selection ofdistracters will inevitably be colored by these feelings. The striking result of this process is that the suppressed thought becomes bonded to the mood state they were experiencing at the time they suppressed it. Our research was designed to test this reasoning in two ways. First, if suppression of a thought bonds thought and mood, later occurrences of the mood should promote the return of the suppressed thought. This was the concern of Experiment I. The focus of Experiment 2 was a test of the complementary hypothesis: Suppression of a thought during a mood should make it likely that when the thought is later expressed, the mood state will return. To understand how suppression can produce an enhanced connection between thought and mood, it is necessary to examine what occurs when one tries to eliminate a thought. Obviously, conscious awareness precludes the elimination of thought entirely--one must think about something. Thus, the essence of successful suppression is turning the focus of one's attention away from the unwanted item and toward other thoughts. In-