Inhibition of the unpleasant
Abstract
Report of a study on the problem of repression of the unpleasant with results showing that "there is not sufficient difference between the reactions to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli in either experiment attempted to warrant the conclusion that pleasantness has any advantage over unpleasantness in facilitating quickness of response, recall, or recognition. Both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli show an advantage over indifferent stimuli in recall and recognition. As far as the data for these experiments are concerned, then, pleasantness and unpleasantness show no decided difference, but both show an advantage over indifference."