Pretrial publicity may bias potential jurors and impair a defendant's ability to receive a fair trial. One way the court attempts to remedy the bias potentially created by pretrial publicity is by judicial instruction to disregard it. However, some studies have shown that this admonishment may actually have a bias-intensifying effect. The present study sought to explain that phenomenon in terms of thought suppression. Participants assuming the role of mock jurors were exposed to relevant or irrelevant pretrial publicity and were given either an instruction or no instruction to disregard it. The results supported the hypothesis that attempts to disregard the relevant prejudicial information would initiate a cycle of thought suppression and increase participants' bias toward the defendant.

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