Burying your head in the sand? You're feeling guilty: How we ignore information because of need to avoid negative feelings

• Study suggests people are actively motivated to avoid information
• We ignore what is going on around us 'to avoid negative feelings'
• Psychologists say the ostrich problem is 'part of popular culture'
  

By Ben Spencer for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:18 EDT, 17 December 2013 | Updated: 20:41 EDT, 17 December 2013

If your bank balance is going into the red, you wouldn’t be the first to deliberately avoid a statement - and scientists now know why.

We bury our heads in the sand because we feel guilty when confronted with reality, say psychologists.

They say the ‘ostrich problem’ - ignoring information that can help us - arises because of the need to avoid negative feelings.

Burying your head in the sand: Psychologists say the 'ostrich problem' - ignoring information that can help us - arises because of the need to avoid negative feelings

Despite evidence that monitoring can be good for us - for example stepping on the scales when trying to lose weight - there are times when individuals intentionally avoid such information.

The researchers think people ignore what is going on around them to avoid negative feelings, often of guilt, that accompany being presented with reality.

Dr Thomas Webb, who led the study at the University of Sheffield, said: 'There will be plenty of us over the Christmas period who will not check our bank balance or look at the calories on the back of the box of mince pies despite us wanting to be in control of our money or lose weight.

'The project proposes that there is an "ostrich problem" such that people bury their heads in the sand.'

The study, published in the Social and Personality Psychology Compass journal, suggests that people are actively motivated to avoid information.

Dr Webb said: 'The ostrich problem is the idea that there are times when people would rather not know how they're doing.

'Avoiding monitoring may allow people to escape from negative feelings associated with an accurate appraisal of progress.

'For example, people might not want to know how much money they have spent or what their partner thinks of their social skills. We call this motivated inattention.'

'Ostrich problem': The researchers at the University of Sheffield (pictured) think people ignore what is going on around them to avoid negative feelings, often of guilt, that accompany being presented with reality

Dr Webb said that promoting lasting changes in behaviour is one of the most significant challenges facing science and society.

His four-year project, which ends in 2015, seeks to understand why people avoid monitoring their goal progress and, by so doing, find ways to promote monitoring and help people to achieve goals.

The project, conducted with colleagues Betty Chang and Yael Benn, includes studying people with diabetes who avoid monitoring their blood glucose and those with financial problems who do not look at their bank balances.

Dr Webb cited a 2012 survey which found that only 10 per cent of people who worry about their finances daily check their bank balance at least once a month.

Likewise, few people keep track of how many calories they have eaten or how much alcohol they have drunk.

The paper said: 'The ostrich problem includes situations in which people receive relevant information but intentionally fail to evaluate the implications for their goal progress - in other words, they reject the information.'

It concluded that the ostrich problem is 'part of popular culture' - giving rise to the terms 'bury your head in the sand' and 'ignorance is bliss'.

By understanding the nature of the problem, the psychologists hope they may eventually be able to design methods to change behaviour in the long term, which may solve some of society's biggest health problems.