Don't think of a pink elephant

..people do that too

I used to have fast enough reflexes that when someone said “do not think of” I could think of something bizarre that they were unlikely to guess before their words had time to register.

So now I’m, say, thinking of a white cat in a top hat. And I can expand the story from there until they stop talking or ask me what I’m thinking of.

I think though that you have to have people asking you that question fairly frequently to be primed enough to be contrarian, and nobody uses that example on grown ass adults.

Addiction psychology uses this phenomenon as a non party trick. You can’t deny/negate something and have it stay suppressed. You have to replace it with something else. Like exercise or knitting or community.