by DEREK ARNOLD & LOREN N. BOUYER
Tell a man he shouldn’t think of a pink elephant and he can’t get that beast out of his mind!
This quote, from Curt Siodmak’s 1974 novel City in the Sky, describes how hard it can be to suppress our thoughts. “Don’t think of a pink elephant” has become a classic example of how difficult it can be to intentionally avoid visualising.
Research suggests many of you, having read about a pink elephant, will have imagined seeing one.
However, some people, like us, have aphantasia – we cannot visualise. So we are a little confused at the idea other people can imagine seeing things that aren’t there.
In a new study, we have found evidence the pink elephant problem is not universal. Some people – including people with aphantasia – can block involuntary visual thoughts from their minds.
What is aphantasia?
People with aphantasia cannot voluntarily imagine seeing things in our mind’s eye. So if you ask us not to think about a pink elephant, we won’t visualise one, because we can’t.
Aphantasia is typically described as a deficit. When people first learn they have aphantasia they are often upset, as they realise other people can do things they cannot. It might be nice to imagine seeing the characters described in a book, for example, or to visualise an absent loved one.
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