History Main / SelectiveObliviousness

* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseMarkRussell Mark Russell]]'s entire character can be summed up as this trope. He's just as blind as [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Team Kong]] and [[HumansAreMorons the rest of the world]] are to the suspicion that should be falling on [[DevilInPlainSight Apex Cybernetics]] in light of Godzilla's attack on their factory, but he takes it a step further. He irrationally descends into denial that there's any cause or reason for [[EasilyCondemned Godzilla]]'s seeming hostility save for Mark thinking that [[ItsAllAboutMe HE]] is [[YouRemindMeOfX reliving a repeat]] of what previously happened with his {{Fallen Hero}}ine ex-wife Emma in the previous movie. As a result, Madison is forced to give up trying to talk sense into the idiot. This gets somewhat {{subverted|Trope}} in the novelization, where Mark and Guillerman are conducting their own investigation into Godzilla's attack and they don't hesitate to suspect Apex.

* A creepy example in ''Film/ShutterIsland''. An asylum inmate subconsciously created an elaborate illusion of residing in her neighborhood and treated other patients and staff as neighbors or delivery men, flatly refused to admit that she's been committed for murdering her children. Then the unfolding story reveals that [[spoiler:the protagonist suffers from that very delusion and that he created a far more elaborate illusion that placed him in the shoes of a federal marshal investigating the escape of the aforementioned inmate from the asylum and secretly searching for another inmate that killed his wife]]. In fact, [[spoiler:the nonexistent escaped inmate '''is''' his wife, that murdered their children and thus drove him insane and the nonexistent killer is himself]].

* ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'': Amane doesn’t want to find out what Yuuji does for a living, because she senses it is something she probably not supposed to know. So she doesn’t.

* In ''WebVideo/BleachSAbridged'', Ichigo is generally more on the ball than his canon self, but he is an incredible blockhead on two things: romance, and [[spoiler: Zangetsu. Despite his Inner Hollow outright telling him multiple times that ''he's'' the real Zangetsu and the Old Man is a fake, it never gets through]].

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Emerald idolizes Cinder as a savior and views her as a [[ParentalSubstitute mother figure]], voluntarily helping her commit all manner of atrocities while refusing to acknowledge or admit that her boss is a ruthless, abusive, [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] {{narcissist}} who has never shown genuine concern for [[ItsAllAboutMe anyone but herself]]. Her denial runs so deep that in "[[Recap/RWBYV6E9Lost Lost]]," when Mercury [[BrutalHonesty tells her point-blank]] that Cinder has never cared about her and sees her as nothing but a tool, Emerald flies into a rage and attacks him. [[spoiler: Emerald finally loses this after Cinder [[UngratefulBastard isn't thankful]] for Emerald saving her after one of Cinder's plans nearly ended with herself being killed, which is the LastStraw that finally breaks Emerald's faith in her.]]

[[caption-width-right:310:[[BerserkButton Don't ask a Gaul]] about the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alesia battle of Alesia.]]]]

* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseMarkRussell Mark Russell]]'s entire character can be summed up as this trope. He's just as blind as [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Team Kong]] and [[HumansAreMorons the rest of the world]] are to the suspicion that should be falling on [[DevilInPlainSight Apex Cybernetics]] in light of Godzilla's attack on their factory, but he takes it a step further. He irrationally descends into denial that there's any cause or reason for [[EasilyCondemned Godzilla]]'s seeming hostility save for Mark thinking that [[ItsAllAboutMe HE]] is [[YouRemindMeOfX reliving a repeat]] of what previously happened with his FallenHeroine ex-wife Emma in the previous movie. As a result, Madison is forced to give up trying to talk sense into the idiot. This gets somewhat {{subverted}} in the novelization, where Mark and Guillerman are conducting their own investigation into Godzilla's attack and they don't hesitate to suspect Apex.

ObliviousToLove, GiftedlyBad, and NoTrueScotsman are common forms of this. TheoryTunnelvision is a subtrope. See also IllPretendIDidntHearThat, in which a character feigns Selective Obliviousness in order to avoid the consequences of acknowledging the situation. May be related to IRejectYourReality and CaptainOblivious. Compare ArbitrarySkepticism.

* The Superman example above is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/MysteryMen''. The Shoveller refuses to believe that millionaire Lance Hunt is really superhero Captain Amazing. He points out to Mr. Furious that [[PaperThinDisguise Lance Hunt wears glasses,]] [[ClarkKenting while Captain Amazing doesn't]]. Mr. Furious ripostes that he takes off his glasses when he transforms. The Shoveller responds "That doesn't make any sense! He wouldn't be able to see!"

* Ruby of ''Webcomic/StickyDillyBuns'' suffers from a comedic ParalyzingFearOfSexuality, and tries to deny that she has any interest in sex, or at least to claim that she can repress any interest in the subject. However, it soon becomes clear that she has a full set of (actually quite vanilla-heterosexual) sexual inclinations, which are triggered and stimulated by the various attractive men she keeps encountering. Her denial is PlayedForLaughs, and her justifications for things like acquiring a stack of {{Yaoi}} manga become [[http://www.stickydillybuns.com/strips-sdb/shame_on_you increasingly baroque and transparent to anyone except her.]]

* In ''WebVideo/BleachSAbridged'', Ichigo is generally more on the ball than his canon self, but he is an incredible blockhead on two things: romance, and [[spoiler: Zangetsu. Despite his Inner Hollow outright telling him multiple times that ''he's'' the real Zangetsu and the Old Man is a fake, it never gets through.]]

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': In the ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' "big white face", an e-mailer asks why Strong Bad is so mean to "the guy with the big white face and grey body", referring to Strong Bad's ButtMonkey brother Strong Sad. Strong Bad goes through literally the entire cast aside from Strong Sad, before concluding that the e-mailer was looking at a picture of the Poopsmith in grey-scale, and HilarityEnsues.

* ''Webcomic/DemonseedRedux'': When Rhoda first reveals herself as a succubus and offers him to [[DemonOfHumanOrigin become a king of a demonic harem]] (turns out to be a lie), he thinks he's dreaming and goes outside to get fresh air.

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue Reconstruction'', Sarge is unable to understand that Grif is now the same rank as him. Grif actually suggests that he is ''physically incapable'' of comprehending that fact. Considering that he attacks one of the Reds who was trying to kill Grif (for attacking a superior officer e.g. ''Grif''), Grif is probably right.

* An interesting version from White-Hat Guy in the ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip "[[https://xkcd.com/1731/ Wrong]]". He can't admit he was wrong, but instead of denying the facts, he denies that he ever believed otherwise; his ''actual'' point was another level of abstraction up.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars Episode VII: Film/TheForceAwakens'', [[DarthVaderClone Kylo Ren]] knows his hero [[spoiler:and grandfather]] Darth Vader was also Anakin Skywalker, who [[RedemptionEqualsDeath embraced the Light Side of the Force before dying]], but ignores Anakin and worships Vader's legacy.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Literature/{{Another}}'':
** The students of Class 3 manage to force and subvert this trope, in an effort to [[spoiler:stop the calamity that kills off members of the class and their family members]]. Due to the calamity being caused by [[spoiler:one person in the class actually being dead]], it can be averted if the class [[spoiler:ignores one person in the class and pretends they don't exist... which only works ''sometimes'', and it's hinted to only work if they pick the right one, which is pure chance]]. They originally choose [[spoiler:Mei Misaki]], until the protagonist [[spoiler:ends up talking to her, having not been briefed by the class on how to behave. This appears to start the calamity all over again, and the students even resort to ignoring the protagonist himself, with no success. {{Irony}}, because the calamity had actually started before -- with someone related to ''Mei'', so she couldn't tell them because they were ignoring her]].
** Also present in that [[spoiler:the one dead person in the class is impossible to detect, since everyone in the class and town and even the dead person themselves have no recollection of their death -- at least, that is, unless someone kills them, in which case everything goes back to normal and everyone, except for the person who returned them to death, remembers them for how they really died, and has no recollection of their ever being in the class]].
* It's possible that Angela/[[spoiler:Ash]] is this in ''Manga/BlackButler''. She/[[spoiler:he]] commits horrible and very sinful actions and yet, she/[[spoiler:he]] believes that it is for the work of the Lord. See WellIntentionedExtremist to understand this.
* In ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
** Ran has had suspicions about "Conan"'s identity, but not nearly as often as she should have, all things considered. [[spoiler:(In one instance, Conan was terribly ill; he reverted to his normal appearance while nobody was watching him thanks to a drink he had been given by [[TheRival Heiji]], then solved the mystery. He had a conversation with Ran, while obviously still very sick, then fell down the stairs and vanished in a puff of smoke. She heard Shinichi scream from nearby, and when she investigated, she found Conan instead.]] And somehow, she didn't figure it out.
** Satou's very much aware of Takagi's affection for her at least relatively early on, ''and'' she definitely reciprocates it. What she ''isn't'' aware of is how much nearly every other male detective in her department is crushing on her (well, except for Shiratori, but that was only because she got stuck in an omiai with him), to the point where she never seems really aware why the Absolute Defense Line keeps making things difficult for [[CosmicPlaything the hapless Takagi]]. She doesn't even realize that ''any'' ring on her left ring finger will typically symbolize engagement! [[JustifiedTrope On the other hand]], considering that the last officer she was attracted to died at a mad bomber's hands...er, explosives...she may just be subconsciously tuning out anything that could lead her into that sort of devastation again. Takagi's genuine love for her is the only thing capable of getting through that membrane.
* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': One constant across the series is that [[TheHero Touma Kamijou]] never realizes that at least half the female cast [[ObliviousToLove either have a crush on him or love him]]. Later novels imply he knows this, but chooses to ignore it because (a) picking one girl would hurt the others and (b) his life is already complicated enough without the girlfriend part.
* ''VisualNovel/{{CLANNAD}}'': Upon learning that his daughter, Nagisa [[spoiler:is pregnant]], Akio is torn between denial [[spoiler:("A stork brought it, right?")]], joy [[spoiler:at becoming a grandfather]] and wanting to strangle Tomoya [[spoiler:for getting her pregnant]]. He does eventually (grudgingly) accept it. This is a rather extreme case, as [[spoiler:Nagisa and Tomoya have been married for several months at that point]] and to make matters worse, he himself had been ribbing Tomoya about the possibility mere ''seconds'' before.
* In ''Manga/CromartieHighSchool'', no one (except Kamiyama, Hayashida, and the Doctor that performed the school physicals) seems to notice that Mechazawa is, in fact, a robot. The same for the student gorilla.
* ''Manga/ACruelGodReigns'':
** Ian {{Mind Rape}}s Jeremy. Which only helps to fuel Jeremy's BrokenBird, SanitySlippage, and TraumaCongaLine syndromes.
** Sandra also falls into this trope. She '''refuses''' to believe that [[spoiler:Greg has been raping Jeremy]].
* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
** Misa is fairly intelligent, and professes to be talented when it comes to romance (and might well be), but refuses to see that her beloved Light actually hates her. She's perfectly capable of realizing when Light is fake-dating ''other'' girls just to use and manipulate them, but somehow never figures out he's doing the same with her. Admittedly, even if she did know, she still wouldn't care.
** Light is utterly incapable of seeing that his actions [[HeWhoFightsMonsters make him just as bad as the criminals he kills, if not worse]]. When Ryuk point-blank tells him that once he kills all the evil people in the world, he'll be the only evil person left, Light brushes him off, remarking, "I don't know what you're talking about.
* In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Goku is completely oblivious to the fact that Monaka is not actually a strong fighter, to the point of mistaking Beerus in a badly-made costume (which gets torn up during the fight) for him, and thinking that he can split himself into copies when he sees the real Monaka alongside the fake one.
* PlayedForDrama in ''Manga/DrRamuneMysteriousDiseaseSpecialist'''s "Gyoza Ears" arc, where the patient's ears transform into gyoza to absorb any sound that she doesn't want to hear, namely [[spoiler:any mention or suggestion that her older son, Yuu--whom she is hallucinating--is actually DeadAllAlong]].
* As a RunningGag in ''Manga/Eyeshield21'', Mamori continuously misses the signs that Sena is Eyeshield 21, despite Sena practically ClarkKenting. She knows Sena has the same build as Eyeshield 21, that Sena joined the football club, never saw Eyeshield 21 without his mask and Sena always seems to disappear when Eyeshield 21 shows up. She thinks "Every time Eyeshield 21 shows up... Sena never seems to be around. Maybe they... don't get along well?" The justification is that since she still sees Sena as a little kid who cannot stand up for himself, she simply ''cannot'' think of him as a successful football player. It's even lampshaded by Hiruma: "Preconceptions are harsh..."
* Sousuke from ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic''. In the beginning, it looked more like he [[FailedASpotCheck sincerely never notices]] when [[EvenTheGuysWantHim characters are in love with him]]. However, as the series goes on, it starts becoming more and more obvious (as his suitors become [[{{Anvilicious}} more and more direct]]) that he's actively turning up his obliviousness. This is no doubt due to his atypical upbringing, he probably has no idea HOW to react to such affection. His relationship with Tessa comes to mind, in particular. Numerous times, she makes incredibly aggressive advances on him, which he actually ''notices'' enough to feel nervous and scared. However, when people are later referring to her feelings for him, he's shown to react in a very oblivious manner, many times completely dismissing it. She's [[UnequalPairing his commanding officer]] so he would have a good reason to do this.
* Kyon of ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' very deliberately ignores any hinting that the [[spoiler:Chessgame of Life may have a King (who decides the game) as well as a Queen (who has the power in the game)]]; he refuses to acknowledge [[spoiler:Tachibana flat out telling him that ''he'' has the power to transfer Haruhi's power]] as well as Tsuruya's telling him that he and his friends ''really'' need to work on their {{Masquerade}} better. And then there's just his ignoring Haruhi's feelings for him; over which she's ''willing to rewrite the whole of reality over.'' Even Itsuki is starting to get annoyed.
* Nearly the entire cast of ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' has this about one subject or another (Sakuya, for example, believes her destiny is to become Japan's greatest comedienne, with Nagi as her partner).
* In ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'':
** England doesn't seem to comprehend what colonial America meant by "Go to hell, England". Even in the present, he thinks of how cute of a kid America was. Since it was [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness a very early strip]] it seems to have been retconned since then, and all later strips show the relationship between England and little America as genuinely warm and fluffy, with little America pretending to enjoy England's cooking even though it's horrible, being happy to receive presents from England, and crying when England goes home.
** Spain has this, especially in the strip where he proposes to Romano. He merely asked for three meals a day without the slightest hinting to either option, but Spain automatically takes it as rejection.
** America also fits in this, as WordOfGod states that he "refuses to read the atmosphere". In other words, he can literally choose whether to remain oblivious to an event or finally pay attention to it.
** Russia seems to think that other nations actually want to live with him. When one of them rebels and he does have to face the fact that they all hate him except for Belarus, he doesn't seem to have a clue ''why''.
** More recently, Denmark has been hinted to do this as well, ignoring aggressive social behaviour and maintaining a cheery demeanour. He never gets it whenever Norway insults him, and during the 2011 Halloween event, when Belarus throws a hanger at him and declares that Russia's team will win, he simply wished her luck.
** Then there's Japan's reaction after he and Greece [[HoYay had sex]]: "IT WAS ALL JUST A DREAM! I'M SO GLAD IT WAS JUST A DREAM!"
* Yurika in ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' tends to do this, insisting that Akito is head-over-heels in love with her, even though he's never shown any signs of it and tends to get pretty annoyed when she tries to get close to him. But it's possible that her obliviousness is all part of a master plan to ''make'' Akito fall in love with her. [[spoiler:if so, it works.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Monster}}'', Eva manages to overlook the fact that she had mistreated Tenma in the worst way - and when he tells her, nine years after she had broken off their engagement, that he is flattered but uninterested in reconciling, she chooses to turn a deaf ear and threaten him with [[MaliciousSlander telling the police that he had killed her father]] should he really decide to continue his life without her.
* In ''Manga/{{Moyashimon}}'', Aoi Mutou used to work hard at part-time jobs so she and her boyfriend could afford a place together. But one day, she arrived at his apartment only to find he had moved out, taken the money they had saved and left a note saying he had found someone else. Mutou preferred to believe that he had been abducted by aliens, which is how she fell in with the agricultural university's UFO Club. Any attempts to bring up the obvious truth [[DrowningMySorrows simply drive her to drink]].
* Ikuto in ''Manga/NagasareteAirantou'' is this to ''anything'' supernatural, dismissing it as his imagination or putting it into logical reason, despite living on a daily basis with talking animals and a kappa. [[spoiler:When Ikuto's sister is introduced it's revealed that she is actually a youkai and that he has been cursed to prevent him from realising.]]
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Naruto didn't realize Hinata had strong feelings for him, something many of the other ninjas were easily able to figure out. He also doesn't realize that Sasuke really doesn't want to come back to the village, [[spoiler:even after Sasuke impales him and almost kills Sakura and Kakashi]].
** Naruto's not the only one with a tendency towards this trope when it comes to Sasuke - Sakura's just as bad, always believing that eventually Sasuke will come back to them no matter how many times she is proven wrong - she still keeps her love for Sasuke even when he ''actively tried to kill her.'' [[spoiler:Eventually he does pull a HeelFaceTurn for good and they have a daughter together, but even then Sasuke chooses to WalkTheEarth to atone for his previous deeds.]]
* Asuka from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' does it as part of her BelligerentSexualTension with Shinji: while she [[{{Tsundere}} never misses an opportunity to berate his perceived weaknesses]] and constantly calls him an idiot, pervert, etc., whenever he demonstrates evidence to the contrary, she makes a pointed effort to ignore it due to her severe intimacy issues. This becomes even stronger as the series goes on, eventually contributing to her mental breakdown when she realizes it's not working anymore.
* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'': Tamaki persistently interprets his attraction to Haruhi as ''paternal'' affection; {{hilarity|Ensues}}, naturally, frequently [[HilarityEnsues ensues]] out of the dissonance. Aside from [[ObliviousToLove Haruhi herself]], no one else is fooled, and in later volumes the other members of the Host Club speculate that Tamaki subconsciously refuses to acknowledge his feelings for Haruhi because he doesn't want anything to break up the surrogate family he's created in the Host Club the way his parents' love caused his own family to be broken up. The funny thing is, Tamaki's "paternal love" obsession goes a bit far when he realizes he's ''romantically'' in love with Haruhi. He thinks of himself as a "perverted lech" preying upon his "daughter" and feels horrified about committing "incest".
* ''Manga/PenguinRevolution'': It takes Ayaori six manga volumes of rooming together and, finally, actually ''seeing Yukari naked'' (with his contacts in, for a change) before he realizes that Yukari is a girl pretending to be a boy instead of a boy pretending to be a girl. Sure, he's BlindWithoutEm, but Yukari pretty much stops trying to keep the act up around him before the first volume is over.
* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'':
** The bombastic Tatewaki "Blue Thunder" Kuno refuses to believe that the hated Ranma Saotome and his beloved "Pigtailed Girl" are one and the same, even when Ranma changes ''right in his arms''. After a while, one wonders if he isn't fully aware and just forcing himself not to think about it. His sister has a similar ailment, but she isn't confronted with the evidence quite as often (and in the anime, never) and actually tried to figure out what happened before getting sidetracked. Kuno might also be purposely ignoring all of the blatant evidence that neither of his "love interests" actually even likes him, let alone lusts after him... although this may be less Selective Obliviousness and more a cocktail of CasanovaWannabe grade lechery (Kuno is debatably a HandsomeLech) and whopping ego.
** Akane Tendo is often accused of this regarding the fact that her pet pig is actually the cursed form of one of Ranma's rivals for her affections. It's got to be the biggest problem she brings to the relationship, even worse than her insecurity. That's not to say that Ranma doesn't contribute his own flaws, faults, and problems, but when she's been shown to consciously ignore Ranma's attempts to explain how a situation wasn't what it looked like, to the extent that the manga version of Akane ignored Ranma's outright telling her why he was trying to grope Hinako, coupled with ''showing'' her the ''pressure point chart'' he was using, in order to support her own belief that it's because Ranma is an uncontrollable lecher. In the anime canon, this flaw is actually the explicit reason why Akane is a LethalChef; she refuses to follow the recipe and adds extra ingredients that she ''[[CordonBleughChef believes]]'' will make it even better (and then adds the ''wrong'' wrong ingredients, due to not looking at what she's grabbing), and refuses to admit her cooking habits are ''why'' nobody will ever eat her cooking unless forced. In one episode, she spends the entire night trying to make edible cookies and continues to repeat the same mistakes over and over even though each and every batch turns out terrible. When Ranma finally allows himself to be guilted into eating her latest batch, and promptly takes to his room with severe stomach pains, Akane idly declares that the recipe must have been faulty.
** Kasumi Tendo calls people who are actively trying to murder Ranma his "friends". Often {{flanderiz|ation}}ed in FanFic into one of her defining traits.
** Mousse could be called Selectively Oblivious in regards to Shampoo. He refuses to admit that the girl he's been chasing since they were three has never shown any sign of reciprocated interest, at best ignoring him and more commonly hitting him whenever he made one of his "romantic" gestures/speeches. By the late manga, she's perfectly willing to let him die just to be rid of him. Instead, Mousse blames her lack of interest on her (willingly given and clearly backed by genuine emotion, at least in the anime) engagement to Ranma and frequently assaults the Japanese boy, accusing him of seducing Shampoo or otherwise keeping her away from Mousse.
* ''Manga/Reborn2004'': Yamamoto Takeshi is the poster boy for this trope. He has seen talking infants wield guns, come ''very'' close to dying at least three times, traveled forward in time to stop an OmnicidalManiac from destroying the world, and, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation depending on your interpretation of his character]], still thinks the mafia is a role-playing game that Tsuna and Gokudera cooked up. After being specifically told this isn't a game multiple times.
** Lambo at least has basic awareness that he's in the mafia, but being a five-year-old, he is unable to grasp that the major events in the series are serious mafia business, instead believing that he is being taken along to play. This results in at least two occasions of a rude awakening after he ends up injured.
* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' was interesting in that it ''didn't'' portray the girl (Shiori) practicing Selective Obliviousness in a positive light. One can also argue that Utena starts indulging in this after episode 31.
* In ''Manga/SkipBeat'', Kyouko is completely oblivious to the fact that Ren is in love with her, even after his assistant blatantly told her.
* In ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'' it is implied over time the Mitsuhide's apparent [[ObliviousToLove unawareness]] of Kiki's feelings for him is more something he's playing up as he would rather not address it. To a different degree it is eventually confirmed that his apparent obliviousness to the crushes and flirtations of most of the female staff in the castle is just his way of dealing with unwanted potential romantic attachments until such things get to the point where he needs to actually say that he has no interest.
* Souichi of the [[YaoiGenre Boy's Love]] manga ''Manga/TheTyrantFallsInLove'' doesn't seem to realize that he's making an awful lot of exceptions to his homophobia in regards to his gay companion Morinaga, not even after he says outright that he doesn't want Morinaga to leave him and that ''[[SingleTargetSexuality he can have sex with Morinaga only]]''. That must be one hell of a balancing act between "I hate ''hate'' homos!" and "I can't let Morinaga leave my side, even if he likes me ''that'' way!" in Souichi's mind.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** One story has [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]] admonishing the Man of Steel for "that creepy Clark Kent impersonation." (Indeed, one might make a claim that the whole Superman mythos embodies this trope, as it [[ClarkKenting would seem painfully obvious]] that Superman is just Clark Kent without glasses.)
** [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] can be a particularly bad example of this, overlapping with EvilCannotComprehendGood. Despite his genius-level intellect, several times he's discovered the secret identity of Superman, but disregards it as a mistake since he cannot fathom that a PhysicalGod could be living a normal life as the meek, mild-mannered Clark Kent.
** Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet. During the ''Batman: Hush'' storyline, Batman surmises that Perry may be well aware of Superman's secret identity (being "too good of a reporter" not to see it), but [[SecretSecretKeeper chooses not to let on that he knows]]. However, the New 52 version is unaware of the truth, [[spoiler:and takes it very badly when Superman's identity is revealed to the world in ''ComicBook/SupermanTruth'', believing Clark was only working at the Planet to "sell his story", and firing him not long after]]. The Rebirth version also seems to haver been unaware, [[ComicBook/SupermanBrianMichaelBendis but takes the reveal better]].
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** J. Jonah Jameson generally frowns upon "costumed vigilantes", considering them usurpers of law and order. But he is willing to give the devil his due when it comes to true acts of heroism and is considerably lighter on those he feels have "paid their due" -- like Comicbook/CaptainAmerica. Of course, there is a big Spider-Man-shaped blind spot in this P.O.V. -- which, DependingOnTheWriter, can range in severity from RunningGag (Robbie Robertson constantly having to talk Jonah down from some of his more libelous headlines and editorials) to outright insanity (the newly-elected mayor of NYC Jameson gleefully watching a S.W.A.T. team open fire on Spidey without provocation.) Robbie Robertson occasionally hints that he knows perfectly well who Spider-Man is, but that he [[IllPretendIDidntHearThat can't acknowledge it]]. If he "knew," then he'd be morally and professionally obligated to tell his best friend and boss J. Jonah Jameson.
** In the 2000s, Aunt May found out Pete was Spider-Man and called him out on not telling her, pointing out that she had survived the death of his parents and Uncle Ben. She also said that for a while, she had thought he was gay. Peter burst into laughter.
* It's implied that, if Commissioner Gordon wanted to, he could figure out Franchise/{{Batman}}'s identity, but he deliberately chooses not to, and has, in fact, refused to look when Batman offered to reveal who he really was.
** In ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'', Batman, out of costume, just saved his infant son's life and hands him the child. Even though he's personally met and spoken to Bruce Wayne, Gordon blames the loss of his glasses for his (claimed) inability to recognize the man he's talking to and standing two feet away from.
** In the ''[[ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand No Man's Land]]'' arc[[note]]both the novelisation and comics[[/note]], Batman tries to get the understandably-abandoned-feeling Gordon to trust him again, and takes off his mask. Gordon immediately turns away, stating that if he wanted to know Batman's identity, he could have figured it out years ago, and even cryptically saying, "And for all you know, maybe I did."
** In the Dick Grayson Batman era, it is repeatedly all but stated that Gordon knows who Batman is and more importantly, who he was.
** In the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'', ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} offers to take her hood off in front of him. He doesn't want to know. In the pre-52 continuity, he tells Barbara that he already knew about her being Batgirl when she comes clean to him, just never let on about it. There's [[DependingOnTheWriter a different take on this]] in ''Comicbook/BoosterGold'', where Booster's sister poses as Batgirl, and Jim is clearly eager to seize on this as evidence that Barbara isn't Batgirl, without admitting to himself that's what he's doing, because that would be admitting the possibility had occurred to him.
* It's painfully obvious that Characters/DoctorDoom, being a supergenius and all, should be able to realize that Reed Richards had ''nothing'' to do with the malfunction that caused Doom's experiment to blow up in Doom's face, and was only trying to explain to Doom that the experiment was flawed. However, Doom apparently can't stand the idea of Reed being smarter than him, so [[NeverMyFault he steadfastly refuses to see reason]] and continues to try to destroy Reed's life in "revenge". It's hinted he does know this full well deep down though, as whenever Reed calls him out on this bullshit, he tends to fly into a homicidal rage, and at least once started beating Reed into a bloody pulp while screaming at him to admit he sabotaged the experiment ''"or else!"''
* Like with Doom above, [[Characters/MarvelComicsLoki Loki]] has this problem, though some of it does [[DependingOnTheWriter depend on how sympathetically he's being portrayed]]. While many writers acknowledge that Loki ''was'' TheUnfavourite, how much of this is ''his own fault'' varies.
** Also, Loki often claims things like "everyone hated me" which is untrue. While most of Asgard does indeed dislike him, Thor himself often references that he and Loki were happy together as children, and Loki just seems to block that time out so his FreudianExcuse is more credible.
*** [[ComicBook/JourneyIntoMysteryGillen Loki returned to childhood age]], with only those memories, and guess what? He's happy and knows that Thor loves him [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther like the little brother he is and cares for Thor in return]] He also doesn't get why everyone seems to hate him [[AmnesiacDissonance since he doesn't remember all the things he did as an adult]], which lends credence to the idea that Loki was editing his own self history to make it so he was "always hated" so his excuse held up.
*** Now he does know since many people of Asgard pointed it out for him that his scheme led to Characters/TheSentry [[ColonyDrop bringing Asgard crashing down]]. However, they are also unwilling to tell him almost anything else (like who people are, what is happening at the moment, etc), since they still want to off him the second they think Thor won't care. The only exceptions so far seem to be the Warriors Three, who seem to do so very grudgingly (unless the story is funny or makes who Loki used to look bad).
*** Loki is a young adult once more, with their past-selves memories and abilities but their child-selfs morality and sense of right-and-wrong, and in the first issue of their [[Comicbook/LokiAgentOfAsgard own series]] it quickly establishes that at least ''some'' part of Loki's past hatred is justified, as Thor admits that he did use to be quite a bully to Loki when they were younger. After he's briefly returned to his previous cruel, alcoholic bullying self, he apologises for making Loki the way they once were, while Loki themself forgives him now that they're both heroes. Cue awws from the audience.
* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'':
** Don't bother to ask the Gauls about the location of Alesia, the place where Julius Caesar defeated Vercingetorix and annexed the Galia into the Roman Empire ([[ArtisticLicenseHistory with the exception of a small village that resists, then and ever, the invader]]). The Gauls will react with a mixture of [[BerserkButton berserk screams]] and aggressive denial. (The HistoricalInJoke being that, at the time the books were written, people really didn't know where Alesia was. These days archeologists are pretty sure it's Alise-Sainte-Reine.)
** Another example from the same comic strip: the very obvious obese Obelix is always in denial that he is "fat". Whenever characters refer to him as "fat" he is either blissfully unaware they are referring to him or he just gets angry and shouts: "I'm not fat!"
* ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'': Lambik is very vain, yet never realizes he's not as clever, powerful or great as he thinks. In "De Dromendiefstal" a villain tricks him into leaving him unguarded and then escapes. As Lambik returns and finds this out he first says: "How stupid of me!" But then he immediately corrects this to: "Stupid? No, he just took advantage of my confidence."
* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'': Professor Calculus, who is obviously stone deaf, doesn't wear a hearing aid, because "he's just a little hard of hearing, that's all."
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Under Marston's pen it's questionable whether or not Gen. Darnell is just clueless about Diana Prince and Wonder Woman being one and the same, but [[Characters/WonderWomanAllies Steve Trevor]] acting like he doesn't know "Di" and his "Angel" are one and the same is highly suspect, given he can recognize her by voice, can recognize her with her hair up, can recognize her with glasses on, regularly teases her about the similarities between the two and seems to love catching "Di" wearing part of WW's outfit and so on, but maintain plausible deniability by never actually confronting her or confirming his "suspicions". Under later writers Steve seems to be legitimately clueless.
* ''ComicBook/EmmaFrost'': Hazel refuses to believe her daughter's claims of Winston's infidelity even when confronted with clear evidence. Not even Emma telepathically sharing the memory of her witnessing Winston's affair is enough to convince her.

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* As demonstrated by the page quote, ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''' Calvin.
* ComicStrip/KrazyKat, convinced that the [[ItAmusedMe psychopathic mouse who throws bricks at his head every day]] does so [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter only as a sign of undying love]]. When Officer Pupp arrives to nab Ignatz for his crimes and toss him in jail, Krazy just thinks they're playing tag, [[ThePollyanna like the good friends that they are]].

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Parodied in the caption beneath [[http://leelingart.tumblr.com/post/38588839984/hey-remember-the-ending-when-these-two-met-again this]] ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' fanart.
--> Hey, remember the ending when [[StarCrossedLovers these two]] met again and hugged and lived happily ever after? [[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke No such ending exists]].[[/note]] I do!
* In the ''Frozen'' fic ''Fanfic/TheAlphabetStory'', Elsa is clearly in love with Kyra however she denies her feelings both to herself and her sister. Same-gender romances are illegal in Arendelle and, even if they weren't, such feelings would be abnormal for a queen.
* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/15215117/chapters/42002117 Balance]]'', Pepper Potts takes her Rescue armor and heads to space with Kraglin and Quill to find Tony and Friday[[note]]who in this story has been given an organic body and is biologically Tony and Pepper's daughter[[/note]]. Steve can't understand how Pepper could "abandon her post" when she has an Iron-man suit, even after Rhodey and Pepper both explain that not only does her suit lack the firepower of War Machine, Iron-Man, or Lady Iron (Friday's armor), but she has no combat training and isn't an Avenger anyway. Meanwhile, Steve disparages Jim Paxton who's present as Yellow Jacket, claiming the man has no training and has no business fighting Thanos's forces, ignoring that Jim is a police officer and has more training than Scott, whom Steve has no problem with being in the coming battle.
* In ''Fanfic/BlackbirdArrow'': Quentin and Dinah blame Oliver for inviting Sara on the ''Gambit'' and Laurel for dating Oliver in the first place. Neither one seem to realize that Sara ''chose'' to get on the boat. Dinah does blame herself for letting Sara go (though she never acknowledges letting Sara sleep with Laurel's boyfriend was wrong), but Quentin doesn't seem to realize yet the role his parenting played in the situation. On top of that, Sara fully acknowledges and accepts her fault in the situation, and has the appropriate guilt to show for it, which makes her parents' obliviousness all the more damning in comparison.
* In ''Fanfic/BurningBridgesBuildingConfidence'', Adrien continues to insist to Marinette that Lila isn't hurting anyone with her lies... while ''also'' telling her that it's her own fault that Lila has turned most of their class against her. [[MaliciousSlander By lying]]. He also doesn't think anything of asserting this right in front of her GirlPosse, unintentionally [[InternalReveal revealing to them]] that he's known all along what Lila was doing and chose to stand by and let it happen. Because ruining Marinette's reputation 'wasn't hurting anyone', you see.
* ''[[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-chronicles-of-tanya-the-holy-youjo-senki-warcraft.780787/ The Chronicles of Tanya the Holy]]'':
** Fandral Staghelm dismisses the Horde as savages for not being Night Elves, even though they were the ones who sought to open negotiations and peace talks after their initial violent meeting. Later, the Night Elves [[PrideBeforeAFall refuse to see they need help fighting the Horde even when they're blatantly losing the war]].
** Tanya never quite realizes just how powerful she is politically nor how much she means to Arthas. Even during the campaign in Northrend, Tanya believes she's working towards securing a comfortable job in Arthas' court once they return to Lordaeron. In reality, not only is Tanya revered as the in-universe equivalent to the Pope (one of her titles is "Her Holiness") and referred to as a living saint, Arthas is actually head over heels in love with her. It's not until he gives her an implied proposal in the final chapter that she finally realizes.
* Misty in ''Fanfic/CommonSense'' refuses to acknowledge that Ash is stronger than her. Even when Ash [[CurbStompBattle easily defeats Lt. Surge]], she chalks his wins up to luck. Though, on some level, she knows it but continues to deny it anyway.
* In ''Fanfic/AColderWar'' fic "Arctic Thaw", after Steve [[spoiler:kills the Winter Soldier, he confronts Peggy about whether she knew the Soldier’s true identity, and Peggy’s answer all but explicitly states that she strongly suspected that Bucky was still alive but just never brought up that possibility because she wanted Steve focused on stopping him if the two fought each other again]].
* In ''Fanfic/TheConfectionaryChronicles'', due to Hermione's faith in Loki as her god, she basically ignores the implications of him giving her a Bible with notes written in Enochian and assumes it’s just another test of her intellect, rather than ever thinking that her god started writing in Enochian as that’s his ‘native’ language.
* This is Adrien's FatalFlaw in ''Fanfic/TheCosmosMiraculousLadybug''. When he continues to insist to Marinette that Lila 'isn't hurting anyone' with her manipulations, Marinette hits him with a series of [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Armor-Piercing Questions]] that force him to admit that yes, he actually ''did'' see the damage she was doing. He just didn't want to ''admit it'' because that would mean acknowledging that the world didn't work the way he wanted it to.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Cultstuck}},'' most of the titular cultists are unable to see [[SirSwearsALot Karkat]] as anything other than the perfect, infallible reincarnation of [[MessianicArchetype the Sufferer]], and they interpret the slightest mundane thing he does as divine revelation. [[HumbleHero Karkat,]] on the other hand, is severely annoyed by this, as it means that none of them are really acknowledging him as a person or listening to his opinion. (He's tried to ''stop'' them being selectively oblivious, but... well, they are a cult.) This is played for laughs, but also drama: they expect/force Karkat to fit [[IncorruptiblePurePureness their image]] of the Sufferer, and have spent centuries producing propaganda and warping history to fit their beliefs.
* Hermione Granger focuses heavily on anything she thinks Xander Harris does wrong in ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-28590-11/Greywizard+Dealing+With+The+Aftermath.htm Dealing with the Aftermath]]'' while completely ignoring the circumstances. Xander drew a gun on [=McGonnagall=]? Hermione ignores that she drew a wand on him first, which is also a deadly weapon. She also condemns Xander for killing Fenrir Greyback, despite the man being an unrepentant mass murderer. Probably the biggest though is that Xander shot (and ultimately killed) Dumbledore because the man just attacked Xander's partner with an unknown spell.
* Akane Tendo in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2693964/1/The-Demon-s-Contract The Demon's Contract]]'' manages to be [[ExaggeratedTrope even worse than canon]] in regards to Ryouga. The very day Ryouga appears, Ranma explains that Ryouga uses his cursed form to sleep in women's beds and snuggle up to their breasts, something that appalls both Nabiki and Akane. Mere hours later, Akane is fawning over her "adorable P-chan". Neither Ranma nor Nabiki can believe how oblivious she is.
* Clint and Steve in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/11087601/chapters/24733785 Desire Written in Olive]]'' constantly do their best to "protect" Wanda after she marries Tony, ignoring everything she tells them about how first she and Tony are avoiding each other and then later actually get along. What offends her the most is when either of them implies Tony's molesting her and she doesn't know enough to realize it's wrong, since at that point not only have they never been intimate, but she and Tony are actually starting to fall in love.
* Willow in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12425636/14/Dragon-Knight Dragon Knight]]'' has a lot of trouble realizing that her "Xander-shaped friend" isn't the slacker she knew back in school, but is now Alexander, a married man who led an army in war and was functionally a king. Notably, she continues to call him Xander after the others call him Alexander and gets upset when he does something contrary to her thoughts on what "Xander" should be (such as not wanting him to grow back his beard).
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Fanfic/EnoughRope'' when Clint wonders how he never realized what was going on with the Avengers until an outside source spelled it out. In particular, when Steve threw his shield at Tony's head because Wanda claimed he was making another Ultron, Steve committed attempted murder on the word of a terrorist.
* The inhabitants of Little Whinging in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13157026/9/Eternal-Fantasy Eternal Fantasy]]'' have spent roughly a decade since the world was turned into an {{Expy}} of Franchise/FinalFantasy doing their damnedest to pretend nothing has changed. Besides discouraging Adventurers and non-humans from visiting, they take great pains to make every house identical and change absolutely nothing about the village. When visiting for the first time in two years, Harry and Dudley are disturbed to realize that everything looks exactly the same, including the decorations in store windows.
** Later chapters show the Wizarding World is exactly the same, doing their best to ignore how things have irrevocably changed. Perhaps the most ludicrous example is that they continue teaching classes the same way as before "The Transition" even though they know for a fact that wands have a limited amount of magic before they become worthless sticks. Hermione lampshades that they're wasting a non-renewable resource on parlor tricks like turning beetles into buttons.
* In ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed'', when referencing books to support her crazed conspiracy theories, the LemonyNarrator often glosses over the parts that directly contradict them, cherrypicking the parts that don't. [[PlayedForLaughs It gets worse]] when she does acknowledge them, either [[IRejectYourReality rejecting them outright by crossing them out in-text]] or finding a workaround through InsaneTrollLogic.
* In ''Fanfic/FadedBlue'', as a tactician, Rose ''really'' should've been able to pick up on the clues that Greg was less-than-trustworthy, but was having too much fun with him to notice.
* In ''Fanfic/ForHisOwnSake'', Mutsumi is intent on [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy getting Keitaro and Naru back together]]... while completely ignoring that Keitaro broke off the relationship and doesn't ''want'' it fixed. She only acknowledges this little detail insofar as telling herself that he's been 'brainwashed' by his new friends, and insists that he'll eventually thank her once she saves him. This includes working with two [[BitchInSheepsClothing bullies]] out to use her to get to Keitaro, something she ''also'' ignores all evidence of. It isn't until [[spoiler:the ''very last chapter'']] that Mutsumi finally gets the hint, and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone comes to regret]] her actions.
* Bakugo in ''Fanfic/FriendlyForeignExchangeStudentSpiderMan'' has this issue when All Might explains his losses to him. Thanks to his perception of All Might, his [[spoiler:then previous loss to Peter]] destroying his confidence, and his aspirations to be an InvincibleHero, he completely refuses to accept that All Might is telling the truth and accuses him of lying. It's heavily implied that on some level he does believe him, but he rejects it because to accept it would mean that his dream of being a hero who could never be defeated was never possible to begin with, and if he acknowledges that, then he may as well give up on heroism entirely.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11886910/1/Gankona-Unnachgiebig-Unità Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità]]'': Turns out Italy has this instead of being simply ObliviousToLove. [[spoiler:His anxiety is so horrible, he didn't know ''why'' Germany and Japan loved him and thought they would "wake up and leave him". Thank goodness they never did though. Not that there was any reason to. In fact, they would be horrible if they did.]]
* Every member of the [[Literature/HarryPotter Order of the Phoenix]] refuses to believe anything negative about Dumbledore in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8914586/1/Harry-Potter-Junior-Inquisitor Harry Potter: Junior Inquisitor]]''. Nearly all of them have been helped out of a tight spot by Dumbledore and have been "Dumbledore's man/woman" ever since. This includes Tonks who's grateful to Dumbledore for giving her a job after she was fired from the Ministry of Magic, despite the fact it was obeying his illegal orders that got her fired in the first place.
** [[spoiler:Though after their various covered up crimes are aired in court, and it's revealed that Dumbledore was functionally blackmailing all of them, most come to their senses.]]
* Lereal Belsai of ''Fanfic/{{Hivefled}}'' refuses to believe that Karkat isn't simply testing his faith and genuinely isn't magically able to protect the ChildSoldiers of the cult. He also dismisses Gamzee out of hand as a spy, despite obvious marks of torture on him.
* In ''Fanfic/IncarnationOfLegends'', Bell admits that he put off the possibility that [[spoiler:Rakia's riches and splendor are born from the pillaging and enslavement of other countries]] because he didn't want to confront that reality.
* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'':
** At first, Goh simply doesn't get that the argument he had with Chloe before [[TheRunaway she ran away]] didn't come out of nowhere, but was the culmination of years spent [[TheFriendsWhoNeverHang drifting apart]], as he completely ignored his ChildhoodFriend in favor of [[GoalInLife chasing after Mew]]. Over time, this transitions to deliberate denial: once Chloe herself makes clear that [[WeUsedToBeFriends she wants nothing more to do with him]], he promptly [[NeverMyFault pins all the blame on her]], insisting that ''she'' should have worked harder to maintain their friendship. While he, of course, never needed to do ''anything''. If she wanted to stay friends, [[AllTakeAndNoGive she should have done everything she could and let him kept doing as he pleased]].
** Sara and Yeardley [[DrivenByEnvy envied Chloe]] for seemingly having a better life than theirs. Any evidence that things weren't as picture-perfect as they projected was duly ignored, even when they exploited it... such as when they figured out that she disliked Pokémon despite (and because) being the daughter of a Professor. In other words, they exploited any cracks in the facade while ignoring any implications that her life wasn't as wonderful as they'd assumed.
** Professor Cerise was largely oblivious to how his daughter was suffering at school. When the problem was brought to his attention by the talent show incident, however, [[NotQuiteTheRightThing his solution was]] to make Chloe start working at the lab, forcing her to come straight there after classes. He ignored one of her teachers suggesting that he take her to therapy, convincing himself that the matter was settled... until Chloe reached her RageBreakingPoint.
* In ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-32155-13/bakenandeggs%2BInfluenced%2BOut%2Bof%2BNormality.htm Influenced Out of Normality]]'', when Buffy and Willow discover Xander's attending USC and moving to Los Angeles, they accuse him of "abandoning the cause" despite actively trying to cut him out of Slaying for the past year. Furthermore, a central plot conflict revolves around Xander changing (rejoining the swim team, applying to college, gaining new friends, etc) and Buffy and Willow refusing to accept that it's not a bad thing. When they try to "support" Xander to "overcome his unhealthy relationship with Cordelia", Xander actually looks up signs of an unhealthy relationship and his relationship with Cordelia only match two criteria: Xander acting different and Cordelia trying to separate him from them. Meanwhile, his friendship with Buffy and Willow meet over half of the criteria that aren't about sexual or parent/child relationships. Faith [[StupidestThingIveEverHeard laughs her ass off]] at the idea, noting that Xander and Cordelia have the healthiest relationship she's ever seen.
* Kyon's mother in ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'' refuses to acknowledge that Kyon had to get into a fight because of Tsuruya when she is told that Kyon had to replace Tsuruya's bodyguard, and instead decides to be full ShipperOnDeck between them. And that was ''after'' scolding him for getting into fights at school (which happened because of Tsuruya too).
* ''Fanfic/TheLandOfWhatMightHaveBeen'';
** When Fiyero is captured by Loamlark and accused of being a spy, he spends his first few hours forced to basically pull his own stuffing out as he tries to convince them that he's not just wearing a bizarre disguise but is a genuine scarecrow. Even after they accept that he isn't just a man in a strange suit, he experiences further trouble when they refuse to accept his protests that he and Toto can't be spies as scarecrows and dogs are far from ideal choices for such a role.
** Invoked when the Mentor discusses the revelation that [[spoiler:the Champion was Fiyero's counterpart; she argues to Elphaba and Glinda that she never knew the Champion’s identity for a fact because there was sufficient time between Fiyero’s disappearance and the Champion’s debut to make it at least uncertain if the two were the same man, although it’s clear to Elphaba in particular that she just never explored that idea in depth]].
* ''Fanfic/LeaveForMendeleiev'':
** Despite having both as her students for ''years'', Mme Bustier claims not to know what Ms. Mendeleiev is talking about when the [[SternTeacher tougher teacher]] bluntly points out that [[RichBitch Chloé]] constantly caused trouble for [[NiceGirl Marinette]]. She outright ''refuses'' to acknowledge the effect Chloé's bullying has had not just on Mari, but on the rest of her class, blatantly favoring the troublemaker by expecting her ''other'' students to 'lead by example' and TurnTheOtherCheek... letting Chloé [[KarmaHoudini get away with everything]] without so much as a slap on the wrist.
** Along similar lines, Adrien is ChildhoodFriends with Chloé and thusly knows just how awful she can be. Yet he acts confused at how others reject the notion that somebody [[ItsAllAboutMe so self-absorbed]] could ever be a hero like Ladybug, and gets ''very'' upset with Marinette and Nino for being happy when one of her schemes [[HoistByHisOwnPetard blew up in her own face]].
** Adrien acts ObliviousToLove when it comes to Chloé, Aurore, and his other fangirls. But when he briefly believes that Chloé is actually Ladybug thanks to Lady Wifi revealing her secret cosplay, he's suddenly far more receptive to the notion of her crushing on him. He also gets deeply upset upon learning that Marinette ''doesn't'' [[SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond harbor a secret crush on him]], partly because he expects ''everybody'' to like him.
** Kim knew that the way Chloé treated Marinette was wrong, but did his best to ignore it because [[LoveMakesYouDumb he was crushing on the blonde]]. After his LoveConfession gets rejected and he's akumatized, Kim realizes [[JerkassRealization just how cruel it was]] to ignore what was happening because it didn't line up with what he ''wanted'', and he vows to become a better person/make up for lost time.
* In ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-32609-4/Nycorson%2BLove%2Byou%2Bto%2Bthe%2BMoon%2Band%2BBack.htm Love you to the Moon and Back]]'', Safira is understandably confused that all of the Scoobies except Faith seem to think Xander is some fragile child pretending to be a superhero. Xander admits to making things worse by never admitting that he's the one pulling off various heroic deeds in his reports but only does so because they'll simply refuse to believe it. In his words, if they see him do something amazing, in a week they'll believe it to be a fluke and in a month they'll think someone else did it.
** Later chapters reveal their obliviousness is due to magic from when Willow tried to destroy the world forcing Xander's friends to think of him as the Zeppo. While Willow and Buffy are by far the worst, the longer anyone spends with them, the more they'll be affected.
* ''Fanfic/MastermindRiseOfAnarchy'':
** As far as Katsuki is concerned, Izuku is ''still'' a Quirkless weakling who 'got a big head' once Katsuki wasn't around to [[TheBully keep beating him down]]. The fact that Izuku became the EvilGenius [[FromNobodyToNightmare Mastermind]] and struck several serious blows to society, including engineering the demise of [[spoiler:All Might himself]], means nothing to him -- he just got lucky!
** Katsuki also refuses to recognize why [[NeverMyFault anyone holds him responsible]] for Midoriya's descent into villainy. To his mind, the only mistake he made was giving Deku a chance to 'forget his place'; his bullying never ''contributed'' to the problem, but kept his victim in check.
* In the ''LightNovel/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'' fic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/9383447 My Son]]'', [[spoiler:Maya]] claims that she's Tatsuya's mother. She played no part in raising him and did not give birth to him, but she is his mother nonetheless. The fact that [[spoiler:Maya]]'s canonically insane may have something to do with this.
* {{Invoked}} in ''Fanfic/NewBeginningsSmallville''. Even after Lois gathers a mass of evidence proving Lex's criminal activities, Tess continues to insist that everything Lois found could have been planted by Lex's enemies rather than just accept that Lex is guilty.
* Alya and Adrien both exhibit this in ''Fanfic/TheOneToMakeItStay'':
** Firstly, Alya refuses to acknowledge that Marinette has any valid reasons to distrust Lila. Even after being presented with proof that she lied about knowing Prince Ali, she [[MovingTheGoalposts declares that doesn't actually mean anything without proof that she's lying about]] ''everything''. So far as she's concerned, the only reason Marinette has to dislike Lila is because [[YoureJustJealous they're both interested in Adrien]]... even though Marinette's given up on him and has moved on.
** Speaking of that, Alya also does her best to strongarm Marinette into {{Zany Scheme}}s she's concocted to help her hook up with Adrien, over Marinette's protests. When she outright refuses to cooperate, Alya chalks it up to her being nervous and fretting about things not working out, blaming ''her'' for those issues -- she's just not ''driven'' enough! Even when she spells out for her that she's already dating Luka, Alya tries to blow that off as an OperationJealousy rather than a ''real'' relationship.
** Alya also fails to grasp that there was anything suspect about her decision to secretly film Chat Noir [[LoveConfession confessing to Ladybug]], then [[ManipulativeEditing cutting up and splicing the footage to make it look like she reciprocated]]. Even when confronted directly by Ladybug, she dismisses her anger and hurt as no big deal, failing to acknowledge that she crossed any lines.
** Chat Noir, meanwhile, elects to ignore Ladybug's insistence that she just doesn't feel the same way about him. Save for when he's sulking about how ''unfair'' she's being, and that she's not treating him like her equal partner... while ignoring that there's nothing 'equal' about him refusing to listen to anything she says that he doesn't like.
** Of note: Alya eventually acknowledges, during her [[ADayInTheLimelight her spotlight story]] ''[[SympatheticPOV I Owe You Every Joy of Love]]'' and afterwards, that her stubbornness stems from a reluctance to face the idea that [[JerkassRealization she was wrong]] and that [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone her actions have had dire consequences]]. Adrien's POV sequences, meanwhile, [[IgnoredEpiphany show no signs of self-doubt]], as he continues to [[NeverMyFault blame everyone else]]. This ultimately leads to [[spoiler:Alya realizing her mistakes and [[TheAtoner working to redeem herself]], while Adrien's bull-headedness costs him the ring and his SecretIdentity]].
* In ''Fanfic/PartingWords'', [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Princess Celestia]] realizes that the Cutie Mark Crusaders have never received adequate help for their bullying problem because the adults are so wrapped up in their own duties and obligations that they convince themselves that the foals' problems are unimportant and not worth their time and effort.
* ''Fanfic/OfPatienceAndPettiness'':
** Alya ''refuses'' to acknowledge that she and Marinette have had a falling-out. Never mind that she publicly disowned her, claiming on the Ladyblog that ''[[BitchInSheepsClothing Lila]]'' was her bestie and spending a full week ignoring and dismissing Marinette's feelings and warnings. Never mind how many times she gets [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech called out]], or how often Marinette stresses that they aren't friends anymore. At most, she only acknowledges her former friend's anger in order to claim that she's blowing things out of proportion, or that she's faking the extent of her outrage in order to punish her.
** When Chloe and several other classmates explain to Adrien just ''why'' Chat Noir's [[DoggedNiceGuy persistent pursuit]] of Ladybug is wrong, he dismisses it as them not really ''understanding'' the situation like he does.
** Adrien also ignores the fact that Marinette has moved on from her crush after realizing that she was LovingAShadow, convincing himself that he can make her see that [[UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo he's fallen for her]] and that they're meant to be together. This also entails ignoring the existence of her ''other'' {{Love Interest}}s, as he eventually admits [[spoiler:when he gives up on her post JerkassRealization]].
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12314753/1/The-Price-of-Victory The Price of Victory]]'', Fred and George basically default to this when they give Draco Malfoy- here their brother-in-law as he married Ginny after the war to 'redeem' his family image- equipment designed to deflect a basilisk's stare and tell themselves that it's all right because they don't ''know'' he has a basilisk even though there's literally no other reason for him to be making such requests.
* A distinct problem with several Order of the Phoenix members, and Light families in general, in the ''Fanfic/PrincessOfTheBlacks'' series is this which feeds somewhat into their BlackAndWhiteInsanity. Not helped that many of them are supporters of Dumbledore who pretty much embodies this trope.
** James simply refuses to acknowledge that Jen wants nothing to do with the Potters and gets extremely defensive when anyone brings it up. This gets extremely aggravating when he's told point blank by his own wife that part of the reason for her resentment is she was ''abandoned'' in the first place and left with an insanely abusive household before being abandoned '''again'''. Yet he only focuses on the fact she performed a blood ritual to change her heritage and kept him as her biological father, never considering there were more practical reasons then some deep buried sentiment.
** This is Dumbledore in a nutshell combined with TheoryTunnelvision: anyone who doesn't blindly follow his way of thinking is Neutral at best and Dark at worst. His relationship with Jen Black can be summed up as him taking everything she does and says, seeing it only from the perspective of a destined Dark Lady rising to power. A group of students attack her? [[CrimeOfSelfDefense She's in the wrong for fighting back when said students were planning to kill her]]. Refusing to reconnect with her family, the Potters? [[AmbitionIsEvil She prefers the power and influence being a Black entails]]. Her demeanor in general? [[NatureVsNurture She was]] ''[[NatureVsNurture born]]'' [[NatureVsNurture evil and not the by-product of a hideously abusive childhood]].
** The Order of the Phoenix distrusts Sirius because he spent over a decade in Azkaban and "proved to be just like his family", completely ignoring that not only was he later declared innocent, but that he fought alongside them in the previous war. While they focus on Dumbledore's disapproval of Stan Shunpike's arrest and trial, none of the members ever consider the idea that Stan ''might actually be connected to the Death Eaters''. [[spoiler:He is, and sets off a bomb in Diagon Alley which earns him full membership into the Death Eaters]].
*** Several members of the Order worry about having to fight a three-way war with Voldemort and the Ministry if their relations with the Ministry continue to deteriorate but ignore that they're the ones antagonizing the Department of Magical Law Enforcement by interfering with their operations.
** Hermione easily ignores the revelation that Jen was abused by the Dursleys as a child and instead focuses on the idea Jen might have murdered them (Which, to be fair, she did, though Hermione has no proof of this).
** The various Light families refuse to believe that the perpetual chaos that Hogwarts is in is valid grounds to have Dumbledore sacked despite the overwhelming amount of damning evidence against them.
* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/17309054/chapters/40714583 Ranma 3/2]]'', Ranma's parents insist that their only child is a boy when she's actually a {{hermaphrodite}} who has both sets of genitals but is predominantly (and identifies as) female. Notably, Genma's diary remarks on Ranma being out of shape due to her "flabby chest" rather than acknowledging she's grown a sizeable bust since hitting puberty.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12327523/1/Ranma-Happenstance-Gone-Right Ranma: Happenstance Gone Right]]'', Akane insists she's both as skilled and as serious a martial artist as the rest of the Nerima Wrecking Crew (Ranma, Shampoo, and Ukyou in particular); she just doesn't spend all her time practicing because she "has a life", blatantly ignoring that she almost never practices and the others consider martial arts a way of life while Akane treats it as a hobby.
* Hermione in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11689576/1/Raptor Raptor]]'' spends years in denial over the fact that Harry's pet Talon is a dinosaur. Even when Film/JurassicPark is being built and advertising about recreating dinosaurs, she fails to make the connection and whenever someone brings dinosaurs up, Hermione insists that "dinosaurs are extinct and thus irrelevant".
* Fluttershy in the ''Blog/ReadingRainbowverse'' didn't seem able to get that Macintosh wanted to break up with her without hurting her feelings. Even when Macintosh considered the manner settled, she failed to get the memo. Only after coming back from vacation and seeing him with Carapace did she realize what was going on... leading to a drunken rant atop a drunken dragon.
* ''Fanfic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness'': Arial Kuyumaya takes it [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]]. Throughout all of Act V and the first third or so of Act VI, Arial is infatuated with Dark and, no matter how many times it's explicitly pointed out to her that he doesn't love her that way, blindly refuses to accept it until Act VI chapter 27, in which her actions cause Dark to have a mental breakdown that nearly leads to his death; in Ruby's words, not even she and the other members of Tsukune's UnwantedHarem were nearly as stupid and blind over Tsukune as Arial was over Dark.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5390962/1/AU-A-Saiyan-Warrior A Saiyan Warrior]]'' Videl outright refuses to comprehend that not only is her father not the strongest in the world but that there are people out there millions of times stronger than she'll ever be. Even once she does realize it, she fails to understand the sheer magnitude of how much stronger Bardock (Kakarot named his son after his father instead of Gohan) is until Master Roshi points out that she'll likely never catch up to him as Bardock's been training since he could walk and is unlikely to ever stop training to become stronger.
* ''Webcomic/ScarletLady'':
** In "Reflekta", [[AlphaBitch Chloé]] acts as though she has absolutely no idea what the concept of shame even ''is''... when it comes to being ashamed by her own actions. Adrien's criticism of her behavior draws a completely blank look from her, as if she truly can't fathom what on earth he's talking about. Despite this, she clearly understands the concept of shame when applied to ''others'' -- as in, how to humiliate the targets of her bullying, ''and'' that their emotions could be exploited by Hawkmoth... something she also sees as a good thing, as that 'gives her a chance to show off' as the titular Scarlet Lady.
** More generally speaking, Chloé's also oblivious to the fact that 'her' Adrikins has been getting increasingly annoyed with her selfish, spoiled and clingy behavior. "Reflekta" also features him being reaching the point that he shoves her off of him when she won't let go of his arm, disrupting the class picture even further. Yet despite said photo capturing the moment of him shoving her away, Chloé dreamily refers to it as 'my picture with Adrien' and is desperate to ensure there's no retake, treating it as evidence of their bond rather than proof of it splintering.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10522150/1/Science-Knows-No-Bounds Science Knows No Bounds]]'', Professor Membrane took in Almighty Tallest Miyuki when she crash-landed in his back yard years ago, and eventually fell in love with her as they worked together - unfortunately, he happened to realise this on the same day she died of old age. In his grief, Membrane chose to forget that aliens existed and refused to think of her as anything other than a human.
* In ''Fanfic/ThoseWhoStandForNothingFallForAnything'', [[Manga/DeathNote Light]] is the king of this trope:
-->'''Light:''' [[[spoiler:[[TheRival Stephen]]]]]'s oddly pleasant considering the last time we met, and I swiftly come to the conclusion that L hasn't told him that he loves me and that we're just going through a rough patch which involves impacting my face with his fist.
* In ''Fanfic/TheWarIsFarFromOverNow'', many of the Avengers that would eventually make up "Team Captain America" (Natasha and Steve in particular) remain completely oblivious to both how much Tony Stark contributes to the group and how incredibly busy he is. Unlike Clint, Natasha, Steve, and Wanda, Tony has a day job: running a Fiction500 which any CEO could tell you is not a simple 9 to 5. Though he's since made Pepper CEO, Tony still invents most of their products when he's not improving the Iron-Man suit, organizing relief efforts for areas caught in Avenger business, dealing with the other Avengers' various screw-ups, and building a planetary defense system for the inevitable alien invasions.
** Natasha's first impression of Tony Stark was formed when he was dying of palladium poisoning, causing her to view everything he does through the lens of a showboating, irresponsible playboy. For example, she gets upset at Tony's "narcissism" making Sam and Wanda's recruitment into the Avengers a mere footnote in the paper, never considering that as a former member of HYDRA, Wanda should be kept out of the spotlight.
** Tony's self-esteem issues keep him from realizing that for all intents and purposes, he's the leader of the Avengers. Even though he houses them, handles public relations, and supplies all their gear, Tony only views himself as a "consultant". As a result, he's baffled that everyone from news reporters to the World Security Council contact him for anything regarding the Avengers.
* When Professor (Ale)Xander Harris refers to Professor [=McGonaggall=] by her first name in ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-23251-7/BarefootXO+Time+and+Again.htm Time and Again]]'', Hermione wants to reprimand him but "decides to let it pass this once". She has apparently forgotten that not only do colleagues often refer to each other by their first names but Xander and Minerva are ''married''; of course he's going to call his wife by her first name.
* In ''Fanfic/WatashitachiWaRogerKaizokuDesuWeStillStandProud'', the other former Roger Pirates are shown to be incredibly oblivious when it comes to Shanks, Buggy, and Ace. First, they don't understand why Shanks and Buggy don't seem invested in the fact Ace is Roger's son, ignoring that none of them ever told the two Roger even had a child. Second, the Roger Pirates don't grasp why Buggy (and Shanks) has a grudge against them rather than being happy to see them for the first time in 22 years, apparently forgetting that they abandoned Buggy and Shanks in the New World when they were barely teenagers and now targets for Roger's various enemies. Third, when Ace shows more interest in being Luffy's brother than Roger's son, Crocus can't fathom why that matters, even though Ace never met Roger while Luffy is his FamilyOfChoice. Not to mention that the people treating Ace as Luffy's brother are actually treating him like a person rather than just "The son of Gol D. Roger".
** Later chapters show Crocus thinks of Buggy as a crybaby who's too cowardly to fight anyone even slightly stronger than a civilian, blatantly ignoring that Buggy was a ''ten year old in the New World'', a place where even hardened Grand Line pirates are {{Mooks}} at best.
* ''Fanfic/WhatItMeansToBeAHero'': After it's publicly revealed that Aldera Middle School was indoctrinating its students with anti-Quirkless propaganda [[spoiler:fueled by the Meta Liberation Army]], Katsuki's takeaway from the situation is rather limited. He only grasps that they wanted him to follow [[spoiler:Re-Destro]], ''not'' that everything he was taught about Quirks and Quirklessness was wrong.
* ''Fanfic/AceLives'':
** Garp never pays attention to the bandit wanted posters, which is why he never realized he dumped Ace with a bandit whose strength and infamy ''rivaled Roger's''.
** Luffy is the only one at the Marineford not to realize that the guy with the cool mustache who's declared himself his new rival is actually "Pirate King" Gold Roger. He doesn't even find out until his crew informs him two years later.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* A particularly [[BlackComedy black comedic]] example comes from the Danish film ''Film/AdamsApples'' with the story's {{Deuteragonist}}, Ivan. After a life that seems like nothing but one endless streak of extremely horrible things happening into him (his [[MissingMom mother died in his early childhood]], his [[AbusiveParents father was both violent and sexually abusive]], his beloved sister was DrivenToSuicide, his son was born severely disabled, his wife also committed suicide, ''and'' finally [[spoiler:he was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor]]) this behavior has become pathological to him, to point where almost everything he says are BlatantLies (though [[BelievingTheirOwnLies he fully believes them himself]]), such as claiming his son is a completely healthy and normal kid, and his wife is still alive and "around somewhere", and the criminals in his care are all reformed even though they clearly still frequently engage in their old crimes. Ultimately though, his obliviousness is what keeps him sane and [[spoiler:alive]].
* The baker in ''Film/TheBakersWife'' insists that his wife left to visit her mother, even when it's clear to everyone that she left to be with another man.
* ''Film/DrStrangelove'': When Gen. Turgidson is confronted with the refusal of president Muffley to attack Russia first with nuclear weapons (because a limited American nuclear attack is already in progress due to unauthorized orders, and would inevitably spark retaliation from the Russian), he insists that it's the smartest thing to do, because by striking first American casualties would be way smaller than otherwise. He seems to be completely unable to grasp that American casualties assessment is not really the point at stake because Muffley [[WhatYouAreInTheDark does not arguably want to kill millions of Russian citizens because of one American general who went nuts]].
-->'''Muffley:''' You're talking about mass murder, General, not war.\\
'''Turgidson:''' Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say: no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops! Uh...depended on the breaks.
* This is what the title of ''Film/AnInconvenientTruth'' refers to (specifically, being unwilling to observe something because your job depends on you not observing it).
* In ''Film/LoneStarStateOfMind'', Jimbo's father keeps trying to set him up on dates with pretty girls, even though Jimbo has been out of the closet for years and everybody else knows. Jimbo even screams, "I'm gay!" to him, to no avail.
* ''Film/MarsAttacks''. Art Land is so intent about selling the investors on building his casino that he ignores the all-out alien attack going on outside.
* Charlie in ''Film/MeMyselfAndIrene'' is very willfully blind to the fact that his three sons are [[ChocolateBaby very obviously not his]], even after his wife left him for her lover. The scene where they're born implies he realized something was amiss as soon as the first was born, but then aggressively chose not to accept it.
-->'''Eric:''' Charlie, did you ever notice your kids have sort of a... year-round tan?\\
'''Charlie:''' Uh, yeah, well, my great-grandmother's half-Italian, so...
* The Superman example above is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/MysteryMen''. The Shoveller refuses to believe that millionaire Lance Hunt is really superhero Captain Amazing. He points out to Mr. Furious that [[PaperThinDisguise Lance Hunt wears glasses,]] [[ClarkKenting while Captain Amazing doesn't]]. Mr. Furious ripostes that he takes off his glasses when he transforms. The Shoveller responds "That doesn't make any sense! He wouldn't be able to see!"
* A creepy example in ''Film/ShutterIsland''. An asylum inmate subconsciously created an elaborate illusion of residing in her neighborhood and treated other patients and staff as neighbors or delivery men, flatly refused to admit that she's been committed for murdering her children. Then the unfolding story reveals that [[spoiler:the protagonist suffers from that very delusion and that he created a far more elaborate illusion that placed him in the shoes of a federal marshal investigating the escape of the aforementioned inmate from the asylum and secretly searching for another inmate that killed his wife]]. In fact, [[spoiler:the nonexistent escaped inmate '''is''' his wife, that murdered their children and thus drove him insane and the nonexistent killer is himself]].
* In ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', Jack Lemmon, masquerading as "Daphne", gets a marriage proposal from Osgood, an elderly millionaire. Daphne tries to talk him out of it:
-->'''Daphne:''' Well ... in the first place, I'm not a natural blonde.\\
'''Osgood:''' Doesn't matter.\\
'''Daphne:''' I smoke! I smoke all the time!\\
'''Osgood:''' I don't care.\\
'''Daphne:''' I have a terrible past! For three years now, I've been living with a saxophone player!\\
'''Osgood:''' I forgive you.\\
'''Daphne:''' (''tearfully'') I can never have children.\\
'''Osgood:''' We can adopt some.\\
'''Daphne:''' You don't understand, Osgood ... (''ripping off wig'') I'm a man!\\
'''Osgood:''' Well, nobody's perfect.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars Episode VII: Film/TheForceAwakens'', [[DarthVaderClone Kylo Ren]] knows his hero [[spoiler:and grandfather]] Darth Vader was also Anakin Skywalker, who [[RedemptionEqualsDeath embraced the Light Side of the Force before dying]], but ignores Anakin and worships Vader's legacy.
* ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'': Eigor the hunchbacked assistant is totally unaware that he has a hump. Yet, as Fronkensteen later points out, Eigor's hump seems to move places so Eigor must be aware of it somehow: he just denies its existence.

[[folder:Literature]]
* This is the cornerstone of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'''s Doublethink. Bonus points for the requirements that obliviousness must not only be selective but also A) instantly switchable, as in you must completely and sincerely forget whatever you vehemently believed in a moment ago and, if necessary, switch back the next moment; and B) recursive, as in you must forget that you've just forgotten something, forget having forgotten that, ''et cetera''.
-->The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous thought presented itself. The process should be automatic, instinctive. Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak.\\
He set to work to exercise himself in crimestop. He presented himself with propositions -- 'the Party says the earth is flat', 'the party says that ice is heavier than water' -- and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the arguments that contradicted them.\\
Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.
* In ''Literature/{{The City and the City}}'' by Creator/ChinaMieville, two European cities, Besźel and Ul Qoma, exist on the same spot at the same time, interwoven with each other. Citizens of one city are trained from a young age to "unsee" the other city and its citizens, under dire penalty from a peacekeeping force known as the Breachers.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** Twoflower is besotted with the idea of Rincewind as a Great Wizzard (sic), and refuses to realize that he's completely incapable of doing magic. This is far more prominent in ''Literature/InterestingTimes'', though, as he does seem to exhibit something approaching realization in ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic''.
** The Duck Man refuses to realize that he has a duck on his head, regardless of how many people tell him so in no uncertain terms.
** Lord Rust is well known for, as the author puts it, "Erasing unwelcome sights and sounds from his personal universe". This causes problems for him when people like Detritus and the Dean of Unseen University are apparently too large to erase, and {{Hilarity|Ensues}} when Vimes takes advantage of it to swear at him without him noticing. This appears to have at least some effect on reality; for instance, he's so confident that a Gentleman isn't in any real danger on the battlefield that arrows will arc around him and hit someone else.
** In ''Literature/MakingMoney'', Mr Bent prides himself on his impeccable perception and eye for detail (he can spot a miscalculation with just a glance from across the room) but is oblivious to a female coworker's open infatuation with him. Presumably it's not so much self-denial as it is an inability to expect anyone to have those feelings for him.
** Nanny Ogg will never see her cat Greebo as anything other than a sweet little kitten, as opposed to the [[CatsAreMean one-eyed, battle-scarred multiple rapist]] that everyone else knows and fears.
* The ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresDeathAndDiplomacy Death and Diplomacy]]'' had the Doctor respond to a blatant come-on by a female villain by saying he made a ''point'' of being entirely oblivious to such things or getting them noticeably wrong, because it saved a lot of trouble.
* Dialogue in the ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' implies that [[TheMentor Harry]] is aware of [[HotForTeacher Molly's]] feelings for him, but chooses to ignore them and [[UnreliableNarrator cuts out the parts of his narration that mention them.]] (This doesn't count as ObliviousToLove, by the way - he acknowledges Molly's feelings when she becomes his apprentice, attributing them to trauma, then goes on to ignore them.)
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** The Ministry of Magic chooses not to believe that Voldemort is back in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' despite the overwhelming evidence. They lead the public to believe that all is well and constantly berate [[TheHero Harry]] and [[EccentricMentor Dumbledore]] as [[CassandraTruth liars]]. It's explained that they have a contrived denial caused from how horrible Voldemort's previous reign of terror was. It was explained by the protagonists that the Ministry suspected Dumbledore of using Voldemort as a scapegoat to explain his own screw-ups at running the school. The Minister of Magic Fudge, on the other hand, believes that Dumbledore is trying to usurp him as Minister of Magic. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome It came back to bite them in the butt when Fudge got kicked out of office and public opinion of the Ministry plummets when it was discovered that Dumbledore and Harry were right.]]
** In Book 4 it's briefly mentioned that Petunia, who could spot the tiniest imperfections that could be used for gossip fodder, refused to see that Dudley's obesity had reached dangerous levels (in the book he's compared to a ''young killer whale''). She only sees reason after Dudley's school nurse sends her a letter about it since the school doesn't stock uniforms in Dudley's size.
** Hermione refuses to listen to anyone who tells her that House Elves have [[BlueAndOrangeMorality different values than humans]] and enjoy serving wizards more than freedom (and that's including the House Elves themselves).
** Snape refuses to see Harry as anything other than an egotistical rule-breaking show-off, in spite of any and all evidence, such as basic observation of Harry's behaviour might produce (okay, the "rule-breaking" part is kind of true, admittedly). That this is also his view of Harry's father, who bullied Snape when they were at school, has a lot to do with this - Snape just sees James Potter whenever he looks at Harry. And Snape refused to see James' better parts as well.
* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': The residents of Valdemar have a [[spoiler:magically-induced]] blind spot when it comes to the existence of magic and the true nature of their [[CoolHorse Companions]]. For example, the scholars of Valdemar insist that the ballad of Kerowyn's ride, an account of more or less contemporary events, is meant to be interpreted metaphorically ''even after the real Kerowyn shows up in Valdemar and becomes one of the Queen's best-known advisors.''
* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' (at least the novels), Zaphod is ''literally'' selectively aware of his own motives, [[spoiler:due to having both of his brains surgically altered so that certain thoughts wouldn't be detectable by the brain scans he needed to undergo in order to become President of the Galaxy]].
** This is also in the movie. It's more of a HandWave of Zaphod's two heads because they don't go into specifics.
** The basis for the AppliedPhlebotinum of the S.E.P. field. Making something invisible is incredibly difficult and requires massive power; a S.E.P. field is easy to make and can be run off a single battery. People can see things under a S.E.P. field, but they don't ''notice'' them, because whatever it is, it's Somebody Else's Problem.
** ''Mostly Harmless'' features a species of bird that is oblivious to every strange thing that happens, like ignoring a fiery spaceship crash. However, they are always shocked by perfectly mundane things. For example, "...And sunrise always took them completely by surprise."
*** Their train of logic is that an unusual thing only happens once, so it's not worth noticing, as it'll probably not affect them. On the other hand, something that happens every day will affect them, so it's worth noticing.
* In Stephen King's ''Literature/{{IT}}'', the ''entire town'' of Derry is afflicted with this, [[spoiler:because IT is subtly manipulating them into complacency until IT chooses a scapegoat for them to slaughter]]. Practically all of Derry sees Beverly being abused by various people and none of them help, one man even calmly going back into his house rather than even scold her harassers. At one point, a man walks into a bar and dismembers a group of men playing cards with an axe. The rest of the patrons don't so much as ask him to leave... but when it's all said and done, they personally storm into the police station, nab him, and lynch him.
* In ''Literature/TheKingsAvatar'', despite all the evidence that says otherwise (knowing Ye Xiu is a retired professional player, having played Glory for ten years, is exceptionally skilled and knowledgeable about the game and Ye Xiu flat out telling her who he really is), Chen Guo simply does not realize that her newest employee is the infamous Ye Qiu.
* Clifford manages to be shocked when he finally learns that [[TheUnfairSex his wife has been having an affair with another man]] in ''Literature/LadyChatterleysLover''. His maid recognizes that he subconsciously knew about his wife's infidelity from the start, but just didn't have the courage to face it.
* In the ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' novel ''Literature/TheMurderOnTheLinks'', it is noted that Poirot's rival investigator, Detective Giraud, is so focused on his own perspective and ideas that he ignores certain key evidence that doesn't fit his theory. He is convinced that the murder victim was killed by his son, Jack Renauld, but Giraud's theory doesn't explain a piece of lead piping found by the body [[spoiler:(intended to disfigure the originally-planned fake corpse after death to hide its true identity)]], and also fails to properly explain why, if Jack Renauld killed his father for his inheritance, he would have bothered trying to bury the body afterwards as it would surely be to Jack's advantage for the body to be found immediately.
* Catherine Moreland of ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey'' is such a Gothic novel fan she tries to read the plot of one into her stay at the Abbey and the late Mrs. Tilney's death, imagining a terrible and sad murder story. But she casts herself as the heroine, while completely missing that ''Eleanor'' Tilney hits all the notes of a classic Gothic heroine: dead mother, overbearing father, living in effective isolation, and with a secret forbidden love.
* A short story "Perfectly Adjusted" by Gordon R. Dickson has a space traveler land on a planet. He encounters a village with two populations, where persons of one population are oblivious to anyone in the other. They dress very differently, so the main character can distinguish between the two. Representatives of both populations see him because his dress is ambiguous. There is at least one hint that the obliviousness is pretended: [[spoiler:Children sometimes interact with children from the opposite population. Parents often find an excuse to spank those children]]. The main character resolves the issue [[spoiler:by turning on a ray that causes everyone's clothes to melt]].
* Part of what makes Molly a BaseBreakingCharacter is because of this trope in the ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'' ''Farseer Trilogy'', where she constantly gets angry with Fitz and accuses him of toying with her when he tries to explain to her multiple times that the reason they have to keep their relationship secret and why he can't spend all his time with her is [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies because of his position at court]], since he's secretly an assassin for King Shrewd (something he is forbidden to tell anyone about - even [[ParentalSubstitute Burrich]] doesn't know). Molly continues to refuse to believe he is being honest about the precariousness of his position or how much danger she would be in, even when she's almost assaulted by two armed men on horseback because of her association with Fitz.
* In ''Literature/TheSecretHistory'', Julian knows every important part of the plot, except for the crucial fact that five of his students killed the sixth one. He wants to believe the best of them, but really, it's not a huge leap to make...
* In the Creator/JinYong novel ''Smiling Proud Wanderer'' Linghu Chong, despite usually being quite perceptive and it becoming glaringly obvious, cannot grasp that his master is a scheming coward who doesn't care one bit for either Linghu Chong or any other of his pupil.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Tywin Lannister is a frighteningly intelligent lord and Hand of the King. He's smart, relentless, brutal and utterly competent -- except when it comes to his family, especially his dwarf son Tyrion. Tywin is so appalled by Tyrion's dwarfism -- and so angry that his beloved wife died giving birth to Tyrion -- he can't recognize Tyrion's worth and the essential fact that his hated son actually has all of his father's intelligence and cunning.
* Johnnie Rico in ''Literature/StarshipTroopers''. While he tries hard to paint himself as "just another ape", reading between the lines shows he's pegged as leadership material almost from the start. This comes to a head when he tells his brevet Platoon Leader that he wants to enroll in Officer Candidate School. He's shocked when the man pulls out the necessary paperwork, already filled out, requiring only Johnnie's signature.
* Early on in ''Literature/QuillsWindow'', Courtney Thane's mother writes to him that she genuinely has no idea why his father cut him out of the will right before he died, and Courtney's sentiment seems to be the same. When we find out the reason for this later in the book, it becomes quite obvious that if either of them had engaged in serious self-reflection they would know the reason behind the father's IHaveNoSon moment.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': One of Mat Cauthon's defining characteristics.
** Born the son of a horse trader in a backwards village, he identifies himself as a simple man who rolls his eyes at the nobles he encounters, only good for gambling with and stealing their coins. Despite that, he throughout the series gains military command, political intrigue, and a taste for fine clothing and drink. It's almost parody when, late in the series, he ends up marrying a foreign princess and him insisting that "just because he married a princess, that didn't mean that he was a bloody noble" with his friends pointing out that not only did that make him a nobleman, it is the ''very definition'' of being made nobility.
** He rescued the young orphan Olver from being whipped after messing with one of his lieutenant's horses. After a couple of failed efforts to unload him at an orphanage, [[TagalongKid he ended up hiring him to take care of his horse]] and ended up spending his nights with him, playing games with him; and teaching him about the world. After about half a book of this, his men started to treat Olver as Mat’s De-facto son, something that greatly confused Mat. He was also annoyed that Olver started to pick up some CasanovaWannabe tendencies and cursing, wondering who in the band had corrupted him, with everyone, the reader included, noting that Olver acted as a carbon-copy of Mat himself.
** He feels nothing but naked contempt for the Dragon-sworn, "those fool men who blindly follow every Word their precious Lord Dragon tells them" while A) technically being ''the leader'' of a band of such men and B) Unwaveringly doing whatever his best friend Rand asks him to do (although bitching and cursing every step of the way). His best friend Rand Al'Thor -- [[TheChosenOne The Dragon Reborn]].
-->''I'm here because Rand'' '''''needs me!''''' ''I will never understand what their excuses are!''
* ''Literature/XWingSeries:'' Wedge at one point comments about how the Bothans are very proud of the fact their intelligence work and [[LethallyExpensive sacrifices]] were what allowed the Rebel Alliance to learn the location of the Death Star II, and they use that to secure a great deal of aurhtority and influence in the New Republic. The problem? They're ignoring the fact that Palpatine ''let'' them get that information, as part of a plan to destroy the Alliance, which very nearly worked.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** Wesley managed to be totally oblivious to Fred's feelings for him in Season Five. This came to a head in an episode when he lectured Angel about the latter's failure to notice Nina's interest, while himself remaining totally unaware of Fred's. She eventually resorted to a ForcefulKiss to get the message across.
** In Season Three, Cordelia was this way about Angel's feelings for her. Fred seemed to be likewise (re: Wesley's feelings for her) until Gunn later casually mentioned that she knew about them.
* Sent up in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'':
-->'''Tobias:''' You know, Mother Lucille, there's a psychological concept known as 'denial' that I think you're evincing. It's when a thought is so hateful that the mind literally rejects it.\\
'''Lucille:''' You are a worse psychiatrist than you are a son-in-law, and you will never get work as an actor because you have no talent.\\
'''Tobias:''' Well, if she's not going to say anything, I certainly can't help her.
* ''Series/TheColbertReport'': Creator/StephenColbert (the character version of himself) insists that he is [[TransparentCloset completely straight]]. Evidence to the contrary is dismissed with convoluted excuses when possible, ignored when not (as with the diagram of his brain in which one area was labeled "Repressed Homosexual Urges").
* In ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'', this is a major part of Rebecca's issues with mental health - it's almost impossible for her to realise what she really needs to be happy because she's so desperate to cling to the tropes of romantic comedies and Disney movies. A particularly painful example occurs in late season two after she [[spoiler:finally gets together with Josh]] but still doesn't feel happy, and starts to wonder whether there's more to her recurring issues with depression than just unrequited love... only for her boyfriend to immediately come in and propose to her, causing her to [[IgnoredEpiphany instantly forget her realisation]] and devote herself to marrying him. A smaller scale version also occurs in the first half of the first season when Rebecca tries repeatedly to convince herself that she moved to West Covina because she really liked the place, and not because her ex-boyfriend now lives there, because that would be ''crazy.''
-->''To be clear: I didn't move here for Josh, I just needed a change. 'Cause to move here for Josh, now that'd be strange. But don't get me wrong, if he asked for a date, I would totally be like "that sounds great!" Did it sound cool when I said "that sounds great?" Okay, how about now: [[BadBadActing "that sounds great..."]] Yes I heard of West Covina from Josh but I didn't move here because of Josh. Do you get those things are different?'' (No hablo inglés.) ''¿Entiendes que son diferentes? Look, everyone, stop giving me the shakedown, I am not having a nervous- [[SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion ...West Covina!]]''
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The Doctor about Martha's feelings for him during series 3. "It's right in front of me and I can't see it" indeed.
*** Martha and Captain Jack Harkness both, apparently:
---->'''The Doctor:''' Oh! I know what it's like. It's like when you fancy someone and they don't even know you exist. That's what it's like. ''[runs off]''\\
'''Martha:''' ''[stares despairingly after him]''\\
'''Captain Jack:''' You too, huh?
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E3Gridlock "Gridlock"]]: All the drivers on the Motorway are aware on some level that they haven't seen any signs from the government and/or the people on the surface for over 20 years, but it takes some serious prodding from the Doctor before they even begin to address the ElephantInTheLivingRoom.
** When the Doctor is introduced to Clara's boyfriend, maths teacher Danny Pink, he refuses to accept that a former soldier could be anything else than a sport teacher, and nicknames him "P.E." for all their remaining interactions.
* ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'': [[AdultsAreUseless Walter and Audrey]] will ''always'' believe Megan to be a saint, in spite of some blatantly obvious hints to her true nature. And even when there is no proof that Drake and Josh were responsible for the shenanigans, they ''still'' refuse to believe them [[InsaneTrollLogic due to Megan being the younger sister]]. Megan exploits this hard in the episode "Peruvian Puff Pepper", getting her brothers in trouble while maintaining her innocence when their parents are around.
* In ''Series/TheFinder'' when Timo is worried about discussing family business in front of Leo, Leo casually mentions that he's "''pretty engrossed in his book''."
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'':
** Rachel is in constant denial about her true feelings for Ross when she's not with him. On the day before Ross's wedding to Emily, she somehow finally figures it out: "Sure, I like Ross, but feelings are really complicated... maybe I ''am'' sexually attracted to him, but I ''do'' love him... oh my God." When she demands of Phoebe on why she didn't tell her about her own feelings before, Phoebe replies, "Well, it's so ''obvious'' to everybody. It's like saying, 'Gosh Monica, you sure like to clean.'"
** Ross asks for no strippers at his bachelor party, and after he leaves Joey immediately asks what kind of strippers they should get. Chandler reminds him what just happened, and he replies "Huh. I chose not to hear that."
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** On top of his book counterpart's general refusal to see positive value in his son Tyrion, Tywin Lannister's last [[spoiler:living]] episode has his daughter Cersei send him to ''immediate'' denial mode by confirming certain rumors that he was long aware of but never consciously believed. The rumors themselves ''should'' have been obvious and indeed were deduced by Ned Stark - specifically that the Baratheons' black hair is nigh-universally dominant, as is the case with all of Robert's bastards, whereas all three of his supposed children by Cersei are blond like the other Lannisters.
--->'''Cersei''': You don't know, do you? You never believed it. How is that possible? What am I saying, of course, it's possible. How can someone so consumed by the idea of his family have any conception what his actual family was doing? We were right there in front of you and you didn't see us. One look in the past twenty years, one real look and you would've known.\\
'''Tywin''': Known what?\\
'''Cersei''': Everything they say is true about [[BrotherSisterIncest Jaime and me]].\\
'''Tywin''': [[VillainousBreakdown No. No, no, no, no...]]
*** [[WordOfGod Per his actor Charles Dance]], the way Tywin sees things is that his son Jaime was "''the handsome apple of my eye''" while the other two children are [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei]] and Tyrion the whoremongering imp "''who, unfortunately, is brighter than the other two put together''", so consciously realizing that the rumors were true would have meant admitting to himself that ''none'' of his children were okay by his standards [[spoiler:and that all three of Jaime and Cersei's children, nominally sired by Cersei's husband Robert, have no legitimate blood claim to either the Iron Throne or to House Lannister]].
** Shae's jealousy regarding Tyrion's marriage to Sansa despite Tyrion clearly acting as a protector and not consummating their marriage. The fact she feels Varys and Tyrion are exaggerating how precarious her position is, when any passing knowledge of Tywin and Cersei would inform most this is not the case, is very noticeable. Eventually, this refusal to accept how much danger she's in actually forces Tyrion to make a deliberately horrible speech to drive her away and she seemingly takes it at face value.
** Though he's shown that he is primarily interested in hunting, whoring, and gambling, Robert is not a stupid man — as evidenced by his HiddenDepths and his occasional status as a royal who actually does something, yet in a world where blood so often makes people ColourCodedForYourConvenience he is unable to see that Joffrey and his other children bear no phenotypical resemblance to the Baratheon family and in fact have traits that are exclusively Lannister. This could possibly be forgiven if it were the case with only one child and coloring was evenly spread amongst his other two children like the Starks, but ALL of his children are blond.
* ''Series/GraceUnderFire'': In one episode, one of Jimmy's relatives tells to Grace he's gay -- but the family insists that he's just shy. This time, he goes so far as to directly tell Jimmy's mother he's gay, but she disagrees and tells him he's just shy.
* Played with in ''Series/HannahMontana''; Miley mentions that she's kissed before, and quickly backpedals prompting [[PapaWolf Robbie Ray]] to say "I love our relationship, you pretend you don't kiss boys, and I pretend I believe you."
* A very common theme in ''{{Series/Hoarders}}'', where people don't seem to notice they're living in squalor. One episode featured a woman who had a lot of dolls. At one point she picks up a small doll that's the size of a soda can and declares that it doesn't take up any space, completely ignoring the ''8-foot-tall mountain of toys'' in front of her.
* ''Series/HogansHeroes'':
-->'''Sgt Schultz''': [[CatchPhrase I see nothing. NOTHING!]]
* Barney Stinson from ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' is almost totally self-deluded; not only is he a compulsive liar who [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believes his own lies]], he constantly twists his perception of reality to paint himself and his life as "awesome", no matter how pathetic he actually is. For example, he will invent arbitrary social rules to justify his behavior and claim historical precedents for them, and continually insist they are true, despite their obvious falsehood.
** This apparently stems from childhood, when Barney's mother chose to lie to Barney and conceal from him anything that might damage his sense of self-worth. For example, when no one came to his birthday party, she forged a letter from the Postmaster General, claiming he had lost all the invitations. This made Barney unable to accept anything that might damage his overinflated ego. Once, when he amicably broke up with Wendy the Waitress, he chose to believe she had gone crazy and was trying to murder him, rather than face the fact she simply didn't mind not being with him.
** Everything you need to know about Barney can be seen in an episode in the sixth season, Zoe sets Ted up with her attractive cousin "[[Music/KatyPerry Honey]]", and Robin and Barney both relate their own versions of the date to Marshall; in Robin's presumably more truthful account, Honey is fascinated by Ted and blatantly flirts with him, while Barney desperately attempts to hit on her and she politely ignores him. While eventually, Barney does leave with her, it's only because Ted is much more interested in Zoe and lets him; in Barney's version, Ted bores Honey by droning endlessly about architecture, and she is virtually ripping off Barney's clothes the whole time. When Marshall points out the difference in the accounts, Barney angrily insists his is true.
** The entire group is guilty of this and later seasons have them confront this as part of their CharacterDevelopment. Barney finally acknowledges that Bob Barker is not his father and actually seeks out his real dad. Ted and Robin realize that they do not have a future as a couple and that by remaining roommates they stifle any chance of having serious romantic relationships with others.
* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' practically runs on this trope as the four younger members intentionally ignore their flaws and shortcomings:
** Dennis refuses to admit that he runs a failing business, he isn't as smart as he thinks, and in general that he is just as much of a loser as the others.
** Dee refuses to admit the fact that she is a terrible actress and is a rude, crude, and white trash alcoholic waitress.
** Charlie refuses to acknowledge the fact that the Waitress hates him and will never love him.
** Mac is probably the biggest example of this trope. He refuses to acknowledge the fact that his mother couldn't care less about him, he is terrible at karate, he isn't a badass, he isn't heterosexual, his friends openly despise him, and that he isn't as devoutly religious as he believes himself to be.
* ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'': After the Inves Plague breaks out the people of Zawame City turn against the Beat Riders while worshiping Bravo as a hero, while conveniently forgetting that Bravo himself was responsible for one of the biggest Inves rampages. This is sadly justified thanks to mob mentality and the fact that Kaito sent out some Inves when he got called out by the mob.
* Hyacinth in ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'' remains oblivious to the fact that everybody wants to avoid her because she's totally obnoxious. She does this not only in the face of people practically running away from her -- her LackOfEmpathy extends to not noticing any kind of social cues other than ones related to class snobbery -- but even filters it out totally when Emmett goes so far as to tell her a part of his opinion about her with BrutalHonesty. It may be he only dares to do so because he has some idea she won't process it.
* In ''Series/LieToMe'', Gillian readily accepts her husband's feeble excuses about having to work late, even though her job is based around the ability to tell instantly when someone is lying. [[spoiler: It is later revealed he was going to AA meetings and the woman was his sponser.]]
* In a first-season episode of ''Series/MadMen'', gorgeous Joan's female roommate makes a very obvious sexual come-on. Joan pretends that she doesn't get it, the roommate pretends that Joan isn't pretending, and the incident is forgotten about.
* In ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'', whenever Vince says or does something suggestive towards Howard (which is quite often) Howard will either walk away or awkwardly change the subject, totally ignoring it.
* In ''Series/PeakyBlinders'', Tommy ([[OnlySaneMan of]] [[TheChessmaster all]] [[TheSmartGuy people]]) undergoes this whenever [[BitchInSheepsClothing Grace]] is involved, seemingly ignoring or pretending to forget that she was originally TheMole who sold him out to his worst enemy. Polly calls both him and Grace out on it, informing the latter [[spoiler: on her wedding day]] that even if Tommy has chosen to forgive Grace, the rest of the family have not forgiven or forgotten what she did and it's only because they love Tommy they're willing to pretend for his sake, with the implicit threat that if she ever tries it again, Polly will deal with her.
* Guy of Gisborne from ''Series/RobinHood'' chooses to ignore the mounting evidence that Marian is in cahoots with Robin Hood. By the final episodes of season two, he's in complete denial.
* Gul Dukat on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. His imagined friendship with Captain Sisko escalates to ridiculous levels throughout the series, to the point where he chides Sisko for being so obtuse about his feelings while on the opposite sides of a battle line or in the middle of a no-holds-barred hand-to-hand fight. In fact, you could probably form a whole section on all the things Dukat pointedly ignores. (Although, from what little has been revealed of the Cardassians, that may be how they express friendship, or he may be doing it just to annoy Sisko.)
* In ''Series/StrangersWithCandy'', the homophobic Principal Blackman is the only one who doesn't know that Chuck and Geoffrey are lovers. At one point he catches them in the school basement and happily accepts the explanation that Chuck is showing Geoffrey the furnace system, even though Geoffrey has his trousers round his ankles.
* In ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' movie, Zack not only blatantly ignores two signs, he reads out loud what he wants them to say.
-->'''Research facility sign''': No unauthorized personnel. Absolutely no admittance!\\
'''Zack''': "Come on in. All are welcome." Perfect.\\
'''Loading bay parking sign''': Absolutely no parking here.\\
'''Zack''': "Absolutely no parking here except for Zack."
::The last one comes back to bite him as a cargo crate is dropped in the exact spot he's parked in the second he leaves the car he pestered his brother for, crushing it horribly.
* Elena from ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' is a darker example of the trope. While she may view Damon as a JerkassWoobie, Damon has done actions that cross the MoralEventHorizon to her friends including trying to kill Caroline and Bonnie, killing her brother Jeremy (he got better), killing Lexi, turning Vicki into a vampire who had to be staked, and forcibly turning Bonnie's mother into a vampire. Basically, even if you ignore the large number of random people he's killed and continues to kill when he's in a bad mood, he's done enough to the people Elena is supposed to care about that her fondness for him requires mountains of this trope.
* ''Series/{{Vicious}}'' uses this as a RunningGag regarding Stuart's sexuality; he still keeps dropping hints that he's gay to his oblivious mother [[ExaggeratedTrope despite being in his early 70s]]:
-->'''Stuart''': Well, I hoped she'd have figured out our situation by now. I have been dropping little clues.\\
'''Freddie''': Yes. [[TransparentCloset Like living with a man for 48 years.]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The beholders in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' are like this by design. They have two brains. One is responsible for higher logic. The other hosts emotions and instincts, and is responsible for interpreting the data input from the senses. Thus, if something is against the beholder's beliefs, it will never get far enough to be considered on logical level. Too bad their genetic memory gives them the beliefs of rampant, murderous racists. The only reason they manage to survive at all with such a mindset is that their creator have also found it fitting to grant them massive amounts of innate firepower.
* Amongst the ''{{TabletopGame/Warhammer 40000}}'' fandom, Games Workshop is portrayed to have this reaction to any evidence of the existence of the now {{RetGon|e}}ned [[UnPerson Squats]]. Best illustrated [[http://1d4chan.org/images/3/33/Warhammer_40k_squats_DRW40k_04_by_DaRealWurld40k.jpg here]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'':
** At Act I Scene IV, Cyrano fails to notice that the buffet-girl is a SmittenTeenageGirl with him. He is so convinced he cannot be loved, that Le Bret must point out to him this fact (see ObliviousToLove).
** At Act II Scene III to IV, it seems that Ragueneau fails to notice that his [[FalseFriend friends, the poets,]] are with him only [[StarvingArtist to eat his pastries]] and that his wife is having an affair with a musketeer. He knows the truth about the poets (see EstablishingCharacterMoment), but refuses to acknowledge Lisa’s infidelity.
** At Act II, Scene V, Cyrano [[BuyThemOff bribes Roxane’s Duenna]] [[LeaveTheTwoLovebirdsAlone to leave them both alone at Ragueneau’s bakery]], and greets Roxane with a ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe {{Stock Phrase|s}}… that she doesn’t catch… at all, because Cyrano is an [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Unlucky Childhood Friend]] whom [[LikeBrotherAndSister Roxane thinks of as a brother]]. And from here, FromBadToWorse: Roxane will never catch any clue ''for years.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In the ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' DLC "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep", Tina is the Game Master for a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' expy. In the game, she pretends that [[spoiler:Roland is still alive and still just as heroic as ever after Roland had been shot dead by Handsome Jack during the game's WhamEpisode]]. Throughout the adventure, the Vault Hunter players all nervously dance around addressing Tina's delusions, until they finally get fed up with playing along and start trying to address it directly, which Tina poignantly ignores as best she can. After the final boss is defeated, Tina finally breaks down and admits she knows she's lying to herself, but it's her story and she just wants to pretend for a while.
** Her giving Angel a HistoricalVillainUpgrade is also this. She dismisses it simply by saying that no one would have died if not for her, completely ignoring that Angel had no choice in her actions and rebeled against her evil father as much as she could, even defying him with her dying breath. In Tina's world, she's just as bad as Jack is.
* Role-players in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' (and presumably other games) almost require this trope for certain scenarios to take place. For example, there's certain to be more than one (or more than ''fifty'') characters running around who all claim to be the same specific character from mythology (popular examples include Thor, the Devil, and even Santa Claus). If you accepted that all these characters' stories are true, even though they clearly contradict each other, they'd go insane. Also tends to be a vital tactic in other areas of roleplay: text-based combat (rather than in-engine PVP) oftentimes breaks down into "Bang bang! / OH I dodged! / No, I shot you / no you didn't!" levels of quarrels; Selective Obliviousness is oftentimes the only way to resolve a situation before ending up needing to get mods involved.
* The Detective in ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' engages in this on a number of topics, with his brain downright shutting down leads and refusing to acknowledge things like the Ex-Something, or his former co-workers. You are even allowed to add more to the list, such as (if you fail one particular check early on in the game) refusing to acknowledge a mounting pile of evidence that your name probably isn't [[AwesomeMcCoolName "Rafaël Ambrosius Costeau"]].
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII'': The Praector of Gorges[=/=][[UpdatedRerelease Aeolus Vale]] acts unaware of how [[HeartwarmingOrphan Firia/Fidelia]] is being bullied by her sister and [[KidsAreCruel the other kids in the village]] for [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer not having wings]]. It's eventually revealed that he's afraid to intervene, not wanting to reveal that [[spoiler:she's ''not'' an orphan, but his child by blood, whom he disowned without completely abandoning her]]. His own mother is aware of the whole situation, and [[WhatTheHellHero really rips him a new one]] when he continues to deny the truth even when [[spoiler:the [=BlissRock=] is stolen and Fidelia's lineage makes her the only one capable of helping the heroes save the day]].
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'': Throughout the game, Riku repeatedly ignores all the obvious evidence that [[EvilSorcerer Maleficent]] lied to him and Sora not only ''didn't'' abandon him and Kairi for the Keyblade, Donald, and Goofy, but has been spending his every waking moment trying to find them. It isn't until he's [[DemonicPossession possessed by Ansem]], as well as Sora's HeroicSacrifice to save Kairi, that Riku finally realizes the truth. It seems to be [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil the influence of the darkness, for the most part, that's twisting his mind and making him delusional]].
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3:'' On the mission to Thessia, Liara refuses to acknowledge the fact asari development was clearly influenced by the Protheans, like how the earliest visual depictions of the goddess Athame look less like an asari and more like a Prothean. And by more we mean ''exactly''. She does this even if Javik, an ''actual'' Prothean, is in the room pointing this out to her. If the player just has Javik's DLC included but hasn't brought him along, the other party member will get increasingly exasperated (or just plain irritated) by Liara's denial.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' soldiers who react to the display of the protagonist's {{Lovecraftian Superpower}}s or explicit hostility but super-fast runs, super-high jumps, ''running up a wall'' or falling from the sky and punching a crater in the pavement will be ignored. [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Without this trope the game would be much more difficult to play.]]
* This trope gets lampshaded in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' by Zelos when the party seem to repeatedly fail to notice that [[spoiler:Mithos]] isn't all he seems to be despite constantly-mounting evidence, at one asking himself how they can trust him so easily.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': In ''Battle for Azeroth'', Rexxar claims he rejoined the Horde to wage war against the Alliance because "Jaina Proudmoore couldn't forgive them for Theramore" and that she has "killed too many". That Jaina was the poster child for peace between the two factions and was betrayed multiple times seems to escape him, with Rexxar even dismissing that the Horde started the current war, saying he doesn't care. During his quest chain in Stormsong Valley, Rexxar rallies horde soldiers to "Drive these alliance scum from our lands", ignoring that said lands belong to Kul Tiras and the horde are the ones invading.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Masayuki refuses to see the bad in people in ''VisualNovel/AProfile'' or to distrust his friends. He simply won't notice such things.
* Junichi in ''VisualNovel/DaCapo'' is actually perfectly aware that Nemu likes him and has for years. He wasn't just completely dense. On the other hand, she's his adopted sister, which makes things kind of awkward, so he simply did his best not to think about it.
* Dennis from ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', who is so good at manipulating people, can’t seem to tell when a girl is so repulsed by him that she wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole.
* Shirou in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' seems to have a slight awareness of Sakura's interest in him, but considering he's in denial about his own attraction to ''her,'' she's made nearly no progress in over a year and a half of trying. Similar things happen with Rin and Saber, although the life-threatening situations they find themselves in during the Holy Grail War force him to confront those feelings up front during the three routes.
* ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'': Amane doesn’t want to find out what Yuuji does for a living, because she senses it is something she probably not supposed to know. So she doesn’t.
* Shirogane Sakuya in ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' refuses to accept or understand that his brother Sakazaki Yuuya loves him and wants him to be happy, and he interprets everything Yuuya says in the most negative and insulting way he can. Partly this is because his backstab-happy aristocratic upbringing has him suspicious of good intent, partly because Yuuya is a "mongrel" half-breed and he's been taught to hate those of impure blood. Partly it's because Yuuya appears cheerfully oblivious to insults and continues to be friendly just to irritate him. [[spoiler:Late in BBL, Yuuya makes a HeroicSacrifice and [[TheReveal reveals all]], and Sakuya can no longer be oblivious.]]
* Reiji actually does realize how Kyoko feels in ''VisualNovel/KaraNoShoujo.'' He just thinks it wouldn't be right to start a relationship with her.
* This is actually a pretty strong plot point in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. Battler refuses to believe that a witch murdered everyone. Straightforward enough. However, he also refuses to believe that any of the eighteen people trapped on the island murdered everyone. Not only does he refuse to believe it, he ''actively rules out the possibility based on the fact that he doesn't want that to be the outcome'', even when he acknowledges that the evidence points in that direction. Can you say "cognitive dissonance"?
** This being [[MindScrew Umineko]], the truth of what's going is a bit more... complicated.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'', Thief constantly denies the existence of dragons. Despite the Light Warrior's direct interaction with several of the mythic lizards, Thief maintains that dragons are extinct. When Red Mage calls him out on it in a later strip while they are being confronted by yet more dragons, Thief explains that it's "wishful thinking". He just ''wishes'' the horrible lizard monsters trying to kill him don't really exist.
* ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'': In the fantasy and future timelines, Arthur immediately resorts to IgnoringBySinging when the subject of Lancelot and Gwenevere's cheating comes up.
* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'':
** Melissa is so madly in love with Justin, she keeps asking him out even after it is revealed that he is gay. Justin, needless to say, finds this extremely irritating, especially since she is the one who (either directly or "indirectly") blew the secret.
** Earlier in the series (though chronologically after Justin was outed), Elliot pretended not to notice Sarah's feelings towards him, because he was afraid that a romantic relationship with her would destroy their friendship; he may have had Justin and Melissa's ruined friendship in mind, since he'd known Justin for some time at that point.
** Until Tedd directly told him, Elliot was genuinely oblivious to the fact that his anime-style martial arts, and his enthusiasm for using them to stop bullies and fight monsters (not to mention that he was [[WeirdnessMagnet always the one who encountered the monsters in the first place]]) meant the rest of the school did ''not'' see him as an average, borderline anonymous student. It's possible his lack of understanding as to whether things that happen are strange was inherited from his parents, who [[OpenMindedParent cheerfully accept just about everything]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Fans}}'', club president Rikk is utterly oblivious to fellow member Rumy's painfully obvious attraction to him. When third member Katherine gets fed up with this and tries to inform him directly, he exhausts ''every other member in the club'', Katherine included, as potentially having a crush on him. Not once does he even consider Rumy.
* Randy, the tame fox in ''Webcomic/FauxPas'', is so naïve about sex that it's impossible to think this trope isn't going on. This alternately frustrates and amuses the wild vixen who wants to be his mate. We find out later that Randy does know about "the birds and the bees." But what he knows comes from human television, so anything that strays from Hollywood ideals of dating and romance leave him lost.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Flipside}}'', BlitheSpirit Maytag has a complete and utter lack of any sense of modesty[[note]]As long as she's [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman in her jester costume]]. Out of it, she's a ShrinkingViolet[[/note]]. And an equally complete and utter lack of understanding it in other people. To the point where she's openly baffled when everyone else is upset when their carriage driver is caught using x-ray specs to peep through their clothes. Given the grasp of human nature she shows when she's in ManipulativeBitch mode, this is almost certainly self-justification for her own exhibitionist ways.
** Semi-confirmed later on: [[spoiler:Turns out that as a child she had almost literally no emotion, barely even reacting to ''pain''. Through conversations with her mother and one or two people that basically "forced" friendship on her, she eventually decided that she wanted to experience life more fully and essentially gave herself Multiple Personality Disorder ''on purpose''; years down the line, she's finally come to realize that the emotionless her, the "shy" her and the "Maytag" her are all equally "her" and -- after her costume was sabotaged and she was [[InnocentFanserviceGirl left naked on stage during a comedy competition]] -- she literally went into exposition mode and explained this to both the audience in the theater and the readers. The whole reason she's "baffled" over other people not living life as "fully" as she does, is that she believes them to be in unnecessary states of self-denial]].
* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' some of those living in the hidden cities beneath Paris insist that surface dwelling civilizations are all a giant hoax despite the fact that they get newspapers and products from the surface and their societies have diplomatic relationships with surface kingdoms and empires and they regularly get students from Paris running through. They complain loudly that any surface dwellers they come across are just people wearing costumes.
* In ''Webcomic/GirlsWithSlingshots'', a RunningGag has been made of Hazel's inability to grasp that lesbian sex isn't just "taking turns with a strap-on." Her lesbian friends have tried to clue her in, but it never seems to stick.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'':
** Jake is an interesting example. He pretended to be unaware of his friends' feelings for him so he wouldn't have to give a response before he knew how he felt, but then accepted it without question when Jane [[spoiler:claimed that he'd gotten it wrong and that she didn't have feelings for him after all]], even when she [[BadBadActing acted very strangely about the whole thing]]. However, when he talked with a subconscious manifestation of these thoughts taking the form of Dirk in a dream bubble, thought!Dirk seemed doubtful that Jane had been telling the truth, an idea Jake waved away uneasily, indicating that deep down he probably is aware but just doesn't want to have to deal with it on top of everything else right now, [[ObliviousGuiltSlinging especially after the way he reacted to everything]].
** Karkat admits late in Act 5 Act 2 that he is aware of and has been deliberately ignoring Nepeta's crush on him. The guy's a romantic ''expert'', there is no way he didn't notice it. He says he's ignoring it because there are just too many other things going on that he doesn't have time to think of a way to let her down gently. [[spoiler:The situation resolves itself when she dies without ever speaking to him.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'', Doctor Upton can hardly have failed to have noticed that his "[[GenderBender daughter]]" appears to have developed some rather severe [[RetGone identity problems]], especially considering that it was [[http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=91 shouted out]] at full volume at one point. Despite this, the issue is never raised.
* ''Webcomic/PixieTrixComix'': Aaron is clearly somewhat attracted to Julian (who, for added fun, he hasn’t realised is gay), but thinks of himself as straight, to the point of homophobia. This leads to increasingly [[https://pixietrixcomix.com/pixie-trix-comix/round-the-clock frantic and sweaty attempts at denial to himself]].
* Capt. Tagon and Sgt. Schlock from ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': Tagon tends to have a one-track mind and has a hard time dealing with things that don't conform to "shoot it/run from it/run, come back with reinforcements" (at least without someone there to wield a clue bat). Whereas Schlock tends to mentally spin anything he's told into what he wants to believe. (So his orders tend to be simple and specific).[[note]]When Petey tells him he won't provide the Toughs with a new ship or assignments because he's trying to remove "a group of sociopaths" from circulation, Schlock immediately volunteers to go hunt the sociopaths down.[[/note]]
* ''Webcomic/SidekickGirl'': Superherione Illumina goes into a LustfulMelt when she [[https://sidekickgirl.net/maelstrom-ii/ meets superhero Maelstrom]], somehow missing that his secret identity is the boyfriend of her secret identity. (In all fairness, he's [[https://sidekickgirl.net/maelstrom-iv/ just as clueless as she is.]])
* ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'': Unity does this to just about anything that doesn't involve blowing things up, especially specific instructions not to blow things up. At one point she cheerfully admits that her idea of logic is to start with what she wants to be the case and then work backward. Sweetheart, meanwhile, has a major blind-spot regarding her own feelings for Unity, which occasionally manifests as full-on homophobia.
* Ruby of ''Webcomic/StickyDillyBuns'' suffers from a comedic ParalyzingFearOfSexuality, and tries to deny that she has any interest in sex, or at least to claim that she can repress any interest in the subject. However, it soon becomes clear that she has a full set of (actually quite vanilla-heterosexual) sexual inclinations, which are triggered and stimulated by the various attractive men she keeps encountering. Her denial is PlayedForLaughs, and her justifications for things like acquiring a stack of {{Yaoi}} manga become [[http://www.stickydillybuns.com/strips-sdb/shame_on_you increasingly baroque and transparent to anyone except her.]]
* ''Webcomic/VanVonHunter'' is sworn to destroy anything evil that he encounters. However, he "doesn't notice" that Ariana Rael, the ChildMage tagging along with him is ungodly evil. The fact that she could destroy him with a thought has ''nothing'' to do with why he's not picking a fight with her...
* An interesting version from White-Hat Guy in the ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip "[[https://xkcd.com/1731/ Wrong]]". He can't admit he was wrong, but instead of denying the facts, he denies that he ever believed otherwise; his ''actual'' point was another level of abstraction up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''WebVideo/BleachSAbridged'', Ichigo is generally more on the ball than his canon self, but he is an incredible blockhead on two things: romance, and [[spoiler: Zangetsu. Despite his Inner Hollow outright telling him multiple times that ''he's'' the real Zangetsu and the Old Man is a fake, it never gets through.]]
* In ''WebVideo/DeathNoteTheAbridgedSeriesKpts4tv'' [[CryingWolf when L tells the taskforce that Light is Kira.]] (With solid evidence to back it up this time!)
-->'''[[TheDitz Matsuda]]:''' ''[covering his ears]'' [[IgnoringBySinging La la la la la I'm not listening!]]
** Also Misa refuses to acknowledge that [[TransparentCloset Light is gay]].
--->'''Light:''' Now I need a place to stay.\\
'''Misa:''' You want to move in with me? Yay!\\
'''Ryuk:''' Ha!\\
'''Light:''' I... ''[Sighs\'' this is the worst day ever!
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': In the ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' "big white face", an e-mailer asks why Strong Bad is so mean to "the guy with the big white face and grey body", referring to Strong Bad's ButtMonkey brother Strong Sad. Strong Bad goes through literally the entire cast aside from Strong Sad, before concluding that the e-mailer was looking at a picture of the Poopsmith in grey-scale, and HilarityEnsues.
* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic is extremely good at denial over things he doesn't want to admit are happening, only reacting when they're explicitly pointed out to him. His DistaffCounterpart, WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick, is exactly the same.
* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue Reconstruction'', Sarge is unable to understand that Grif is now the same rank as him. Grif actually suggests that he is ''physically incapable'' of comprehending that fact. Considering that he attacks one of the Reds who was trying to kill Grif (for attacking a superior officer e.g. ''Grif''), Grif is probably right.
** Seems to have grown out of this by the Chorus Trilogy, where he just reacts with extreme annoyance when Grif tells Sarge that he now outranks him (Grif was promoted to Captain at the beginning of the Season). [[spoiler:Doesn't stop Sarge from asking the Federation of Chorus to promote him to Colonel, so that, once again, he outranks Grif.]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Emerald idolizes Cinder as a savior and views her as a [[ParentalSubstitute mother figure]], voluntarily helping her commit all manner of atrocities while refusing to acknowledge or admit that her boss is a ruthless, abusive, [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] {{narcissist}} who has never shown genuine concern for [[ItsAllAboutMe anyone but herself]]. Her denial runs so deep that in "[[Recap/RWBYV6E9Lost Lost]]," when Mercury [[BrutalHonesty tells her point-blank]] that Cinder has never cared about her and sees her as nothing but a tool, Emerald flies into a rage and attacks him. [[spoiler: Emerald finally loses this after Cinder [[UngratefulBastard isn't thankful]] for Emerald saving her after one of Cinder's plans nearly ended with herself being killed, which is the LastStraw that finally breaks Emerald's faith in her.]]
* ''WebAnimation/RWBYChibi'':
** In Episode 18, Ruby and Nora fail to notice all the obvious signs that Cinder and Emerald are villains engaged in an EvilPlan, to the point of easily falling for Cinder's half-assed cover story about making a cake recipe for a kitten charity; they even think nothing of Mercury entering the room and talking about using a bazooka to kill kittens, which he aptly calls the "Kitten Killer 9000." Emerald even lampshades it:
--->'''Emerald'''': They're messing with us, right?
** In "Director Ozpin", Ozpin dismisses team RWBY's concerns that sabotage is occurring during the title sequence. As they talk, Mercury hits Ruby in the head with a boom mic; Ozpin notices the apology, but not that it's fake. Emerald pushes a spotlight that Blake has to save Yang from and which just barely misses Ozpin, but he doesn't notice. As he walks off screen, Cinder visibly pushes the giant Chibi logo on top of him and cannot believe he thinks it fell by accident.
--->'''Ozpin''': ''[muffled]'' Hello? Can I get some assistance? This giant rose seems to have fallen on me, completely by accident!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' has an entire city doing this in "The Sweaters".
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'': In the episode "The Ski Trip", Rose starts letting hints to her identity as Huntsgirl slip. Jake, however, refuses to see it, even when Trixie and Spud point it out to him. Quote Spud, "Denial, party of one, your table is ready." It takes seeing that Rose and Huntsgirl have the same BirthmarkOfDestiny for Jake to realize the truth.
* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Despite Bob stating many times before that he is not fond of [[ObnoxiousInLaws her family]], Linda seems to believe that he loves them deep down inside. To be clear, Bob has legitimate issues with his wife's family. Her sister Gayle is a borderline psychopath who is lazy, overemotional and dependant on Linda to the point of making her go out of her way to help without any concern for inconveniencing her or her family. Her mother is even worse, as she's very loud, controlling and [[UngratefulBastard ungrateful]] when she makes Linda do her favors or steal her daughter's cell phone charger while insisting it's her's. Her father, while not intentionally terrible, is often sick and is hard of hearing. Linda cannot at all grasp that Bob outright hates being around any of them.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'':
** Panini doesn't understand the meaning of the words "I'm not your boyfriend."
** [[FatIdiot Chowder himself]] in "[[ChristmasEpisode Hey Hey It's Knishmas]]". He honestly believed Gazpacho is Knish Krinkle, despite everyone telling him [[MallSanta he's just in costume]]. When Gazpacho has a meltdown and takes off the costume in front of him, Chowder frames it as "Knish Krinkle threw up Gazpacho and is now dead". Panini lampshades how he isn't even listening to her spelling it out to him.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Dexter and Dee Dee's parents do not know about the lab, despite having witnessed the odd results of Dexter's experiments, as, for instance, the talking dog. [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight It simply doesn't occur to them that this might be unusual]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Timmy's [[AdultsAreUseless parents]], while already [[TooDumbToLive pretty unintelligent]], can ''never'' comprehend that Vicky is a BabysitterFromHell, even when the evidence is right in front of their faces. It gets worse in later episodes where Vicky [[CardCarryingVillain doesn't even make any attempt to hide her evilness]]. Taking the worse factor a step further, in "Vicky Gets Fired", Timmy shows his parents incriminating evidence of Vicky torturing him, but they don't even bat an eye. In fact, they only get upset at Vicky and fire her because [[SkewedPriorities she erased their reality show tape]]. Even Timmy, their own son, [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** In one episode Lois' brother, Patrick, is revealed to be the eponymous Fat Guy Strangler. Lois refuses to believe Patrick is the killer, despite the several glaring pieces of evidence that point to Patrick, including a half dead fat guy lying in Patrick's room who outright states that Patrick tried to kill him, until Lois sees more and more damning evidence piling up and Brian screaming at her to wake up.
** The Griffins, except for the children and Brian, never seem to be aware that Stewie is highly intelligent for a baby his age. Every time he talks they never exactly react to what he says. In the episode "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", Lois meets with Stewie's preschool teacher and she shows Lois several drawings Stewie made, which show Stewie killing Lois in various horrible ways. The two women then have this exchange regarding the images:
---> '''Teacher''': Notice anything unusual in these pictures?\\
'''Lois''': You're right, his father isn't in any of them!
* The titular protagonists of ''WesternAnimation/FanboyAndChumChum'' are prone to fall into this, most noticeable in the first episode "Wizboy". When a real wizard named Kyle comes to their class, they somehow believe he's only ''pretending'' to be a wizard, to the point of Fanboy dressing up as one to convince him that ''they're'' wizards, too. What doesn't help is most of his effects are far more realistic than seen on a magic show, such as materializing out of smoke, generating a dome of privacy with no assistance, and ''floating in the air'' without a harness. They grow out of it in later episodes.
* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': Mr. Herriman can spot the tiniest speck of dirt, but he couldn't tell a crudely made decoy of Eduardo from the real Eduardo.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': [[GiantSpider Jeff the Spider]] imprinted on Billy when he hatched and only wants Billy to love him like a son... and is completely incapable of understanding that Billy ''hates'' spiders, including Jeff himself, to the point of madness, despite the fact that Billy regularly beats him with anything he can get his hands on.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has three examples:
** Zim himself is completely incapable of processing any evidence that he's ''not'' a great hero of the Irken Empire. No matter how much he destroys on his own side, how blatant the Tallests' contempt for him is, or how obviously they try to get rid of him, he always bounces back just as convinced of his own greatness as before. [[spoiler: He realizes that the Tallests aren't coming for him in ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus''... for a few minutes before he rationalizes it away and is back to his old self.]]
** Dib, Zim's ArchEnemy, believes that exposing Zim as an alien will change how his family and peers think of him, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. [[spoiler:In the above-mentioned movie, at least his family shows they care about him]].
** Prof. Membrane is an expert in all fields of science, but absolutely refuses to believe that there is alien life no matter how much evidence is shown to him. Even when trapped in an alien prison, he just thinks it's a hallucination.
* ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'': Linus believes in a nonexistent Santa Claus figure called the Great Pumpkin, who rises out of the pumpkin patch with a sack full of toys; every year on Halloween he waits in the pumpkin patch outside his house, hoping he'll show up. When he does not show up and he is left alone outside, Charlie Brown tries to reason with him the following day, but he accidentally calls him "stupid" for waiting in a pumpkin patch for someone who obviously doesn't exist, launching Linus into a long rant throughout the credits that the Great Pumpkin ''will'' come next year and he'll be waiting.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'':
** Professor Hamilton worked with the Cadmus project and attempted to take down the Justice League all because of Superman's invasion of Earth while he was BrainwashedAndCrazy and subsequently threatening him, referring to [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E12E13Legacy the events of the finale]] of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries.'' While that is true that Superman threatened him, it's only because Hamilton was being a total prick and refusing to help him save a badly wounded Supergirl because he was more concerned about saving his own ass by not consorting with someone who was considered a felon rather than helping a man he'd repeatedly given aid to in the past no matter the circumstance.
** Superman falls prey to this exact same trope in the same Cadmus storyline. Despite later giving his NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech in a different episode, at no point does Superman apologize to Hamilton or acknowledge that a human might have panicked at the reminder that his friend is an immortal alien with laser beam eyes. It later takes Green Arrow AND the Flash to point out that to most people, the difference between a Kryptonian superhero and a Kryptonian alien monster is a matter of how careful the Kryptonian is about damaging things. Like relationships, buildings, and people.
* In ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', despite being an extremely paranoid ConspiracyTheorist, Dale Gribble is completely unaware that his wife is having an affair, even though it should be glaringly obvious to anyone who meets [[ChocolateBaby "his" son Joseph]] and isn't blind. The only people other than him who don't know are Joseph and Peggy (who had to be told by Hank). [[LockedOutOfTheLoop Nobody has the heart to tell him about it.]]
* ''Franchise/LooneyTunes'':
** WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck often uses selective obliviousness, especially to facts that damage his ego. Creator/ChuckJones told in an interview that when they first thought up Daffy's voice, everyone was sure that they would be fired when their producer, Leon Schlesinger, would hear it because he would probably immediately realize that Daffy's lisp was based on his own. Strangely enough, Schlesinger never noticed this and even complimented the staff on creating such a wonderfully unique voice!
** WesternAnimation/PorkyPig exhibits this at times. He refuses to believe in Daffy's imaginary friend, even when he is being carried in his invisible pouch. He will also never heed Sylvester's attempts to warn him about danger, not even when a monster is looking him square in the eye (that tall green Martian is ''obviously'' a friendly Native American).
* ''WesternAnimation/MrMagoo'' not only [[BlindMistake can't see past the end of his nose]], but more to the point, refuses to acknowledge that there's something wrong with his eyesight. Even when he's told he's mistaken, he either misunderstands or dismisses it, stubbornly sticking to his guns rather than admit he's wrong. Only in two cartoons ("Fuddy Duddy Buddy", where he's told that he's mistaken a walrus for his old friend Bottomley; and "Magoo's Check-up", where's he's flat out told to get his eyes checked) is he confronted with the reality of his nearsightedness, and yet both times he pulls himself up and continues on as always (he takes the walrus out again because he genuinely likes his company, and he mistakes a TV repair shop for the ophthalmologist's office and thinks he's been given a clean bill of health). WordOfGod states that even if he did wear glasses, as bullheaded as he is, he would still make the same kind of blatant mistakes.
** Interesting bit of trivia, there actually is an extremely rare condition in real life that causes people who are blind to think that they can see, called Anton–Babinski syndrome or Anton's Blindness. People with this condition can't be convinced that they are blind despite any evidence.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** [[ShrinkingViolet Fluttershy]]'s introverted tendencies throughout her life result in a tremendous lack of self-awareness, to the point that she considers herself "a loudmouth". In "Putting Your Hoof Down," this carries over into her resolve to stop being such a pushover (a status which she needed her friends' objective input to realize), causing her to fail to notice [[JerkassBall how she's been acting]] until she notices [[WhatHaveIBecome how monstrous her reflection has become]].
** Scootaloo is stubbornly oblivious to the fact that acquiring a cutie mark actually ''requires'' personal introspection and self-discovery, instead simply trying whatever random activity or skill she can think of in hopes that this will prove to be her special talent. The other two Cutie Mark Crusaders, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, follow her lead.
** Pinkie isn't fond of Mudbriar's stoic attitude and mannerisms, despite her sister Maud's own personality being similar to his. Case in point, when Maud and Mudbriar take out their pets to play, they marvel at the fun they have together. Pinkie, however, whispers to Maud that Twiggy is just a stick even though Boulder itself is just a rock. When Starlight points this out to her, Pinkie retorts that Boulder has "ten times the personality of some random stick!" Similarly, Pinkie thinks Starlight is joking when she points out that Maud is undeniably awkward and strange just as Mudbriar is.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOblongs'', [[FatBastard Helga]] [[MeaningfulName Phugly]] thinks she is loved by all, especially [[GirlPosse the Debbies]].
-->'''Peggy''': Let's see there's the popular kids, the jocks, the nerds, and then there's us.\\
'''Helga''': Hey don't lump me in with you losers. I am accepted by all groups. [[PlanetOfSteves Hi Debbie, hi Debbie, hi Debbie, hi Debbie, hi Debbie, hi Debbie.]]\\
'''The Debbies''': Ewww!
** Regarding a tea party with the Debbies:
--->'''Helga''': I’m ''sure'' my invitation got lost in the mail.\\
'''Milo''': You live in a fantasy world, don’t you Helga?\\
'''Helga''': What was that? I was thinking about my hundreds and hundreds of boyfriends.
** When told point-blank that the Debbies can't stand her, Helga covers her ears and starts humming loudly and stomping.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Robotboy}}'': Tommy Turnbull is smart and has an unrequited crush on Bambi yet [[ObliviousToLove he never gets the hint that Lola Mbola, who is one of his best friends, has a crush on]] ''[[ObliviousToLove him]]'', despite how unsubtle she is about it.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Marge Simpson can sometimes adopt this philosophy in addition to being a StepfordSmiler. One example is her saying that Homer used to be a fat, immature slob before they dated and now he's an entirely different person. There's also this.
-->'''Bart:''' I've got to go teach some kids a lesson.\\
'''Marge:''' I choose to take that literally.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** Eric Cartman is so wrapped up in his own ginormous ego that he will ignore anything which contradicts his glorified self-image, and what he cannot ignore he will twist in his own favor. The best example is, of course, claiming he's not fat, but "big boned", but there are other examples too. On one occasion he frantically tries to avoid a fight with a girl who's mad at him, because if he loses, nobody will think he's cool anymore. When he's forced to fight anyway and loses, the other kids tell him that not only did they ''never'' think he was cool, but they couldn’t possibly think any less of him than they already did. Cartman thinks that they're just saying it to make him feel better, [[InsaneTrollLogic meaning they care about him, meaning they STILL think he's cool]].
** "Asspen" finds Stan spelling out the fact that he's not interested in competing against the resident JerkJock of the ski resort, only for the latter to take every single word as a challenge.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** [=SpongeBob=] not only completely ignores the words of warning a woman gives him about the ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''-like creatures she sells, but also ignores when it turns into a massive killer eel in favor of chastising Gary for "bullying" it even when ''he is in its mouth and about to be eaten''.
** What ''really'' sells [=SpongeBob=] (ditto for Patrick) as this is the fact that he just ''cannot'' seem to comprehend the obvious fact that not only is Squidward not his best friend, but in fact hates him to the point of madness, even though Squidward has flat-out told [=SpongeBob=] to his face that he can't stand him on at least one occasion. This is best shown in "Little Yellow Book," where we're shown a scene of Squidward chewing [=SpongeBob=] out; while in reality, Squidward was furious at [=SpongeBob=] for letting Gary into his home and Gary chewing up many of his possessions, complete with Squidward screaming "horrible words that should never be used around strangers" in his face, [=SpongeBob=] sees it as Squidward giving him "his profound opinions on how to properly raise and care for a household pet."
--->'''Squidward''': Great Neptune, I had no idea. [[LampshadeHanging The depth of his delusion is awe-inspiring.]]
** Squidward is oblivious to the fact that he's not that good a clarinet player. It's implied that even [=SpongeBob=] knows it, but doesn't have the heart to tell him.
* On ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Total Drama World Tour]]'', Cody. [[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]] a bit too, though she was at least suspicious that [[{{Jerkass}} Duncan]] was cheating with [[PerkyGoth Gwen]] behind her back; when [[DoggedNiceGuy Cody]] found out he seemed completely ''shocked,'' despite the fact that in-universe it's been a common theory they liked each other going back to season two.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Despite Bob stating many times before that he is not fond of her family, Linda seems to believe that he loves them deep down inside. To be clear, Bob has legitimate issues with her family. Her sister Gayle is a borderline psychopath who is lazy, overemotional and dependant on Linda to the point of making her go out of her way to help without any concern for inconveniencing her or her family. Her mother is even worse, as she's's very loud, controlling and [[UngratefulBastard ungrateful]] when she makes Linda do her favors or steal her daughter's cell phone charger while insisting it's her's. Her father, while not intentionally terrible, is just consistently sick and is hard of hearing. Linda cannot at all grasp that Bob outright hates being around any of them.

** Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet. During the ''Batman: Hush'' storyline, Batman surmises that Perry may be well aware of Superman's secret identity (being "too good of a reporter" not to see it), but [[SecretSecretKeeper chooses not to let on that he knows]]. However, the New 52 version is unaware of the truth, [[spoiler:and takes it very badly when Superman's identity is revealed to the world in ''ComicBook/SupermanTruth'', believing Clark was only working at the Planet to "sell his story", and firing him not long after]]. The Rebirth version also seems to haver been unaware, [[ComicBook/BrianMichaelBendisSuperman but takes the reveal better]].

*** [[ComicBook/JourneyIntoMystery Loki returned to childhood age]], with only those memories, and guess what? He's happy and knows that Thor loves him [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther like the little brother he is and cares for Thor in return]] He also doesn't get why everyone seems to hate him [[AmnesiacDissonance since he doesn't remember all the things he did as an adult]], which lends credence to the idea that Loki was editing his own self history to make it so he was "always hated" so his excuse held up.

** Lord Rust is well known for, as the author puts it, "Erasing unwelcome sights and sounds from his personal universe". This causes problems for him when people like Detritus and the Dean of Unseen University are apparently too large to erase, and {{hilarity|ensues}} when Vimes takes advantage of it to swear at him without him noticing. This appears to have at least some effect on reality; for instance, he's so confident that a Gentleman isn't in any real danger on the battlefield that arrows will arc around him and hit someone else.