Basic Trope: Trying not to think about something results in them thinking about it.
- Straight: Alice is walking home from a party at night and is scared because she's heard there's a mugger on the loose. She tries not to imagine being mugged, but that just makes it worse.
- Exaggerated: Alice isn't just trying not to think of something specific; she's trying to avoid thinking at all. Not only does she fail, she ends up getting existential.
- Downplayed:
- Justified: Truth in Television.
- Inverted: Alice has powers, but they only activate when she's afraid. She tries to scare herself by imagining being mugged, but she just can't imagine it.
- Subverted: Alice and Bob are walking home together. Alice says, "I'll just try not to think about the mugger". Bob says, "That won't work!", but he's wrong; she does succeed in not thinking about being mugged.
- Double Subverted:
- Parodied:
- Zigzagged: Alice and Bob are walking home together. She says that she'll try not to think about the mugger, but he says that'd never work. To his surprise, though, it does work... then Alice appears to be imagining being mugged... but it turns out to actually be real.
- Averted: Alice doesn't try to avoid thinking about anything.
- Enforced: "Let's add a joke in so that this crime-themed episode won't be too dark."
- Lampshaded: "Gah, trying not to think about things never works!"
- Invoked: Bob tells Alice not to think about a flying horse as Reverse Psychology.
- Exploited:
- Defied: "Trying not to think about it never works, so I'll just have to accept my fears."
- Discussed: "Why is it so hard not to think about things?"
- Conversed: "She's a sitcom character and she's trying not to think of something. That never ends well."
- Implied:
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs: Alice and Bob are in a dimension where imagination comes true, but Alice, unfortunately, is a Ms. Imagination.Bob: (while they're both being chased by a laser-eyed unicorn) "Ugh, Alice! Stop imagining stuff!"Alice: "It was an accident!"
- Played for Drama: This leads to Alice developing intrusive thoughts.
- Played for Horror: There are demons around who feed on fear, and trying not to think of them only creates more fear for them to feed on.
Don't think about going back to Thought-Aversion Failure.
