Ostrich syndrome

Negative post alert!! I wanted to help Ginia with an O post. Nothing was coming into my mind. Then suddenly came the word ‘Ostrich’. Ostrich is a fascinating bird. The size and overall appearance of it makes it a bit intimidating. And, there is a trait of an ostrich where it bury its head in the sand thinking, since it cant see anyone, no one can see it and thus it is safe. This pseudo trait is often correlated with human personality a.k.a Ostrich effect.

“What is the Ostrich Effect?“

The ostrich effect, also known as the ostrich problem, is a cognitive bias that describes how people often avoid negative information, including feedback that could help them monitor their goal progress. Instead of dealing with the situation, we bury our heads in the sand, like ostriches.” (Source: Internet)

Personal Experience

A very close knit relative of mine had this syndrome. It was not a very pleasant experience. Since the time I started to understand the surroundings, say around 3 years or so, we could feel a hint of hostility in that person.It is worth mentioning here that she had kids which were of our age group. Hence, we used to mingle a lot since very young age. Most of the times we spent together was fun.

By the time we were pre- teens, other cousins, their friends etc. used to hang around and satisfy the curiosity of teenagers like smoking a cigarette, sometimes tasting beer, adult magazines etc. Please note that, these were all initiated and actively participated by that person’s eldest son. Now, ofcourse these activities were noticed by people in the neighbourhood (or say old times CC tv camera/ news channel) and diligently reported to the respective parents ..LOL. We got thrashing too for our karma. Our respective parents accepted our fault and took timely action except that ‘Ostrich’ person who argued with the journalists/ CC tvs a.k.a parents of other kids saying that her kid is so innocent and its because of person X’s kid he is going astray. Now, even as a small kid, it felt so wrong. This syndrome continued even after attaining adulthood and is continuing even now to some extent. That is a bit sad.

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z“ and this is the “O” post.