The role of attribution of motivation in producing postsuppressional rebound

Three studies demonstrated that postsuppressional rebound (PSR) may be both reduced and enhanced by manipulating people's attributions about why they experience difficulty during suppression. Telling participants that suppres sion failures indicate a high motivation to use the suppressed construct pr oduced more PSR than telling them that suppression failures indicate a low motivation to use the construct (Study 1). Telling participants that an ext ernal stimulus would make suppression easy produced more PSR than telling t hem that it would make suppression difficult (Study 2). Telling participant s that suppressing a stereotype is difficult and unindicative of prejudice eliminated PSR (Study 3). These results support the notion that PSR occurs because people infer from the difficulty experienced during suppression and from suppression failures that they are motivated to use the suppressed co nstruct.