Don't Think of the Purple Elephant

If you're wondering why you keep touching your face in public despite knowing that you shouldn't touch your face in public -- well, part of that is habit. But part of it is called The Rebound Effect, in which focusing on an action or a thought one is supposed to avoid actually causes that action or thought. 

Tied into all this is the Ideomotor Effect, first discovered in the middle of the 19th century in the process of debunking spiritualism. Thinking about things can actually cause the body to do these things unconsciously. It explained both spirit writing (and the later Ouija board). It also explained spiritualist Table-turning. 

And it's backed by later brain science -- simply thinking about moving your hand causes your hand to essentially fire up and get ready to move at the very least. But it can also cause involuntary movement.

Or in other words, over-loading people with a longer and longer list of Do's and Don't will cause some of them to do the opposite involuntarily. And the longer the list of Do's and Don't's, the greater the number of failures.

Which is my way of saying that if you're going to wear a face-mask, wear gloves as well. You're not going to remember every time you're supposed to wash your hands, and you're not going to always remember not to touch your face.

Also, 'Don't think of the purple elephant.'