Ostrich effect
Also known as: Ostrich problem
We avoid information we expect to be unpleasant by simply not looking.
What it means
The tendency to avoid exposing oneself to information that is feared to be psychologically uncomfortable, in the hope that not knowing will spare the distress of knowing. Unlike denial, the unwanted fact is not reinterpreted; it is left deliberately unexamined, the head buried so the threat need not be faced. The behavior is driven by anticipated negative affect and a wish to protect mood and self-image, and it is reinforced when the information feels both bad and not immediately actionable. It is self-defeating because avoidance forecloses corrective action precisely when it is most needed, and the dreaded news often worsens in the dark. It matters for health screening, debt, and investing, where the moments people most avoid checking are the moments checking would help most.
Examples
Investors log in to their portfolios far less often when markets are falling than when they are rising — choosing not to see the losses.
The envelope from the credit card company sits unopened on the hall table for a fortnight. Not opening it does nothing at all to the balance, but it does postpone the feeling.
Screening invitations go unbooked by exactly the people who most fear the result. The letter gets filed, the appointment is never made, and the one thing that would help most is the thing avoided.
First described in Karlsson, Loewenstein & Seppi (2009); Galai & Sade (2006).