Author: Derek Arnold, Professor, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland

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…