British Journal of Clinical Psychology (1999), 38, 195±201 Printed in Great Britain # 1999 The British Psychological Society 195 Brief report Suppression and ritualistic behaviour in normal participants Eric Rassin*, Harald Merckelbach, Peter Muris and Sven Stapert Department of Psychology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Objective. Previous research has shown that normal and abnormal ritualistic behaviours do not diåer in content. Rather, the diåerences between both categories of rituals pertain to characteristics such as frequency, intensity, discomfort and resistance. This study sought to investigate whether thought suppression is linked to these characteristics. Design. Cross-sectional ; questionnaires on thought suppression and rituals were administered to a sample of undergraduate students (N 5 166). Method. Habitual suppressors (N 5 20) and non-suppressors (N 5 20), as measured by the White Bear Suppression Inventory, were selected and compared with regard to the characteristics of their rituals. Results. Suppressors experienced their rituals as more intense, discomforting and resistance-provoking than did non-suppressors. There were no group diåerences in the content, frequency, and perceived senselessness of rituals. Conclusion. Although the cross-sectional nature of the present study precludes causal inferences, its ®ndings are consistent with the view that chronic thought suppression may promote ritualistic behaviour. Clearly, the details of the link between thought suppression and rituals require further examination. Compulsions as occurring in obsessive±compulsive disorder (OCD) are repetitive and stereotypical behaviours. Although patients suåering from compulsions do not recognize an immediate purposefor this behaviour, they do feel the urge to carry out their rituals. Rachman (1998, p. 121) speaks of compulsions as being `in many ways the purestexample of abnormal behaviour’. Although this suggeststhat compulsions show little or no similarities to normal behaviour, there are several reasons to doubt that compulsive behaviour strongly deviates from normal ritualistic behaviour. First, recent studies show that generally accepted rituals are rather similar to pathological compulsions (e.g. Dulaney & Fiske, 1994; Fiske & Haslam, 1997). In these studies, descriptions of pathological compulsions and normal rituals were given to blind * Requests for reprints should be addressed to Eric Rassin, Department of Psychology, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands (e-mail : e.rassin!psychology.unimaas.nl).