Information Aversion by John Baez.
Why do ostriches stick their heads under the sand when they’re scared?
They don’t. So why do people say they do? A Roman named Pliny the Elder might be partially to blame. He wrote that ostriches “imagine, when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed.”
That would be silly—birds aren’t that dumb. But people will actually pay to avoid learning unpleasant facts. It seems irrational to avoid information that could be useful. But people do it. It’s called information aversion.
John reports on an interesting experiment where people really did pay to avoid learning information (about themselves).
Do you think this extends to learning unpleasant information about their present IT software or practices?