The Ostrich Effect refers to the human tendency to avoid negative information as it relates to personal finances. Although ostriches don’t actually burrow body parts in the sand, humans seem to ignore negative risks to (or effects on) their money.
At The Ostrich Head, we take this one step further. In general, people will consider negative information until they make a decision. Then, they will ignore or dismiss all information that suggests that their decision was wrong.
For for normal human being, it’s difficult enough to admit that your initial decision was wrong. For governments, bureaucracies, and highly egotistical political leaders (all of them) it is almost impossible to change course or change a policy.
We refer you to the wisdom of Galbraith:
Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
Of course, any information that doesn’t add to the proof is discarded, no matter how critical it may be.
That’s the information you find here at The Ostrich Head. The little bits of critical information that would have been useful at decision time, and subsequently get ignored.
We’re also happy to share the viewpoint of the Ostrich Head from time to time, to see how absurd the world of politics, economics, and finance really is.
While it is tempting to suggest that the world is going one way and that our generation is on the cusp of something, we take the view that there’s nothing in the past that was so absurd it won’t be repeated in the future.
In fact our new religion, the Church of Ostrology, is based on the core belief that most people don’t want to know the truth.
Welcome to the world of Idiocy.
P.