One in three people would rather deep clean their bathroom – deep clean with rubber gloves and everything – rather than check their savings,” according to AJ Coyne, chief marketing officer at online bank Monzo. While this might sound like marketing hyperbole, it reflects a profound truth about our relationship with financial information: many of us actively avoid looking at our bank balances when we fear bad news.

This trait is so common that behavioural economists have given it a name: the “ostrich effect”. Like the myth of ostriches burying their heads in the sand, we often prefer uncertainty to confronting potentially negative financial information.

Research examining millions of banking logins reveals clear patterns in how people interact with their financial information. A 2009 study found that people systematically avoid checking their financial information when they suspect bad news.

This avoidance has real consequences for how people manage their money. In our ongoing research, we found clear evidence that people who don’t regularly check their accounts show much more volatile spending patterns, particularly around payday. When people receive their salary, those who infrequently check their accounts tend to spend significantly more on discretionary purchases compared to regular account checkers.