During March, we are looking at what you don’t see, or what you have been unwilling to see. We all have biases that may hold us back. There is a cost to looking away; avoidance can create bigger problems.
The term originated from a myth in ancient Rome and has become common as a metaphor for someone avoiding their problems. The myth likely came about because ostriches dig nests in the ground to bury their eggs; from a distance, it might look as if they have stuck their heads in the ground as they tend to their nests.
For humans, it means we tend to ignore negative, uncomfortable, or threatening information to avoid immediate psychological pain. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory coined the pleasure principle, states that humans are driven to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
What is the ostrich effect?
The ostrich effect is a cognitive bias in which we neglect or bury our heads in the sand to avoid what we do not want to see. It is a tendency to ignore data that causes us anxiety, such as financial issues, health, or important issues in our environment. It could be avoiding information, feedback, or our emotions when they are uncomfortable. It is also known as deliberate ignorance or information avoidance.
We do it because it is an emotional protection against fear of something perceived but unknown. It can be overwhelming to think about opening that credit card bill or viewing our bank balance. We face these issues in many areas of our lives: avoiding a doctor’s appointment or test results, tough conversations, and market declines that affect our portfolio.
It happens because we want to manage our emotional distress. Also, we may not want to face discomfort over conflicting beliefs and realities. Ignoring problems often makes them worse, such as accumulating debt or untreated health issues.
How avoidance shows up in everyday life
Avoidance takes many forms in our lives. The core of the ostrich effect is avoiding the emotional discomfort or pain associated with bad news. We don’t take the recommendation to have health screenings because we are already worried about the test results. People often ignore negative, uncomfortable, or risky information, which manifests as physical avoidance, inattention, and biased interpretation.
This avoidance helps reduce our anxiety about news that conflicts with our perceived reality. People feel psychological pain, and ignoring reality avoids discomfort. Thus, avoiding stressful information can lead us to maintain a false sense of security or comfort. This causes us to prioritize short-term peace of mind over long-term problem-solving.
The initial form of avoidance is to avoid obtaining potentially unpleasant information in the first place. In my past, as a tax preparer, I witnessed people coming in with three or four years of unfiled tax returns and a pile of letters from the IRS. They avoided the pain of yearly tax filing to the point that it became a nightmare that cost them much more.
People ignore many areas of their lives, such as conversations they would prefer not to have, relationship issues, and putting off work projects, because of the potential for bad outcomes. We are also inattentive to information that has already become available. Don’t open that envelope. Don’t call the doctor back. As with letters from the IRS, just don’t open them.
Why do people act like ostriches?
People avoid information that threatens their self-worth, such as unfavorable performance reviews. People feel that having definite knowledge of failure or loss is more psychologically painful than just suspecting it.
They prefer to avoid uncomfortable truths to maintain a sense of being in control, even if that control is artificial.
Why does facing the truth feel hard
Facing the truth is hard because people develop an emotional aversion to uncomfortable truths, favoring short-term comfort over long-term decision-making, which often results in worse outcomes. So, what makes it so hard? A fear of losing control, especially with our money or health, can overwhelm us. Ignoring the issues can feel safe and can help us avoid emotional distress. However, that bubble will burst at some point.
Facing the truth can clash with our self-perception or beliefs, causing pain; avoiding the truth helps us maintain our self-image, even if it is false. Ignoring the information is an attempt to stay in a “safe” bubble and avoid the emotional distress of managing an unpleasant situation. A fear of losing control, but if you don’t see it, does that mean it does not exist?
People often have a gut feeling about a bad situation, but are afraid to confirm it. Ignoring evidence allows them to maintain hope or “blissful ignorance” rather than confronting a painful reality directly.
We can throw away the IRS letters, or avoid sources of information, and let the pile of credit card notices sit (maybe put them in a drawer out of sight). We can avoid people we don’t want to talk to so we don’t have to discuss the important issues.
The hidden cost of looking away
This avoidance creates high hidden costs, including intensified financial losses, missed opportunities for correction, and emotional distress, as problems snowball into crises. Despite seeking comfort, evading issues usually leads to increased long-term anxiety and stress.
Avoiding looking at bank accounts, investments, or debt statements often results in higher interest charges, overdraft fees, and missed investment opportunities. Without crucial information, individuals make decisions in the dark, such as overspending because they have not checked their balance.
In professional settings, avoiding performance feedback prevents personal development and career growth. Avoiding talking to your boss about work or financial issues can make your job harder.
Symptoms and cures for financial avoidance, by Sarah C. Newcomb, Ph.D.
Pushing past the ostrich effect
“Fortunately for serious minds, a bias recognized is a bias sterilized.”
– Benjamin Haydon
This behavior typically stems from a desire to avoid the short-term emotional pain of bad news, even though it results in greater long-term costs. It is common in adults seeking to maintain an illusion of fairness, comfort, or control.
Overcoming the ostrich effect
Recognizing the behavior is the first step. Overcoming this behavior requires consciously facing unpleasant information to make better long-term decisions. Experts recommend establishing automated systems, such as auto-pay bills and automated savings, and using mindfulness techniques to reframe uncomfortable but necessary information as “useful” for personal or financial improvement.
Ostrich effect: Burying Your Head in the Sand? Avoidance in Decision Making – YouTube
Your homework
This week, a step-by-step method for facing one avoided truth.
- Name the avoided thing. Write down exactly what you have been dodging, such as calling the doctor.
- Identify the emotion behind avoidance. Is it fear, shame, feeling overwhelmed, or resentment?
- Break it into the smallest possible step. Not to fix your finances, but log in and look at the balance.
- Set a 5‑minute timer. Commit to just five minutes. You can stop after that if you choose.
Choose one small thing you’ve been avoiding: nothing catastrophic, just something mildly uncomfortable. Ask: What did I learn? How can I support myself next time?
Beyond the personal: media, propaganda, and deliberate ignorance
Propaganda doesn’t just mislead us; it also gives us permission to look away. If something is labeled ‘fake news’ or ‘just AI,’ we can dismiss it without the discomfort of examining it. Many social media algorithms reinforce the ostrich effect and confirmation bias, as they learn who you are and become echo chambers of your existing beliefs. Social media platforms are designed to maximize engagement, which often reinforces these biases.
Deliberate ignorance can sometimes lead to contentment and better outcomes. It is about navigating the maze of life with wisdom. We can choose not to read every comment or check our portfolio every hour.
When does deliberate ignorance become harmful or irresponsible? We each have to look at our lives and learn to recognize our biases. Our choices to seek, ignore, or suppress information are not just based on logic and reason. They are deeply intertwined with our desires, fears, ethics, and emotions.
Looking at what you don’t see is a life management skill that can improve your life and reduce stress, build stronger relationships, and help you make more informed decisions. This is about becoming more observant and intuitive, identifying your blind spots, reading between the lines, and noticing possibilities or risks that are not immediately obvious.
Stay with me as next Friday, March 27, we continue with this theme: what you don’t see. Next week’s topic is Turning toward the truth: how to face what you’ve been avoiding. Building a life where truth‑telling becomes a habit, not a crisis.
Recommended reading
The Ostrich Effect: Why We Avoid Uncomfortable Truths, by D. Bordelon
The Cost of Avoidance: What You Pay Every Time You Delay the Hard Thing, by Julia Clark
Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Citation
Images generated by Copilot AI based on my prompts.
Newspaper Photo by Luis Cortés on Unsplash
Fearing to look within ourselves for the root cause of our limiting beliefs and illusions will ensure that we never rise in consciousness enough to escape continual reincarnation on this low-consciousness planet. Never fear to look within; the impurities in our psyche cannot be consciously removed unless we are willing to look at them with no fear.