History Main / JustIgnoreIt

* In a ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' strip guest-authored by [[PvP Scott Kurtz]], Gabe uses TimeTravel to get goods from the 1980s, then says this trope's title when Tycho expresses concern over the ominous hole in space/time hovering just behind them.

* {{Troll}}s, on forums: "Don't Feed the Troll!" The idea being we don't reward kids for pooping their pants.
** This saying is very true but is very hard to put into practice when the forum has a large community. Trolls know that the more active the forum community are and the more members there are, the easier it will be for the troll to bait someone into responding to their antics because there is always at least one person who can't ignore the troll. Small communities in forums or forums that are very closed off (or has a very active moderation team) usually will have less trolls because everyone knows what to do when they encounter one.

* Zits. Popping them only makes it worse.
** On that note, scabs. Picking at them can reopen the wound. Best just let the scab fall apart on its own.
*** This is actually inverted in larger wounds, where it is best to be left open (though bandaged and cleaned to avoid infections) rather than letting it scab over. This results in faster healing and less scar tissue forming. Can be recommended by doctors in cases where stitches should have been received but doctor was not seen until after healing has begun, meaning stitches are no longer an option.

* It has been argued that the best way to fix the economic problem is for everybody to pretend that there ''isn't'' one, since stock prices - and through them, the health of the economy - are determined by the confidence that the marketplace has in the companies who issue them.
* Subverted with bullying. Anybody who's been bullied can probably tell you how often they're told to do this. It's terrible advice, though; at best, it only seems to work in relatively mild cases - not the ones where real help is most needed.

* This applies to anything you don't want people seeing. Trying to stop people from seeing it will likely just attract attention to it. See StreisandEffect, NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity, and RevealingCoverup. Compare, for example, Creator/{{Disney}} ignoring ''Film/EscapeFromTomorrow'' rather than filing legal action, resulting in it barely making a splash, to North Korea's response to ''Film/TheInterview'', which simply got it a lot of attention.

* ''WebComic/MierukoChan'': Miko's policy for dealing with [[ISeeDeadPeople the bizarre and terrifying ghosts and spirits she sees]] is to ignore them and hope she doesn't draw their attention.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'':
** In ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1'', you have a rare chance of seeing a poster that spawns Golden Freddy, an animatronic that will crash your game if you stare at it for too long. The way you get rid of it? Look back at the monitor, and it will vanish.
** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'' has this in the form of Phantom Freddy, one of the hallucinatory enemies. He appears to be staring at you through the window and creeping into your office, but since it ''is'' just a hallucination it can't actually hurt you. Falling for the distraction, however, will let the very ''real'' Springtrap get closer to the office.

[[folder:Film]]

* Inverted in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Blink": the monsters for that episode are "quantum locked" meaning that they only exist when not being observed. If you look at them (or if they look at each other) they turn to stone. But if you look away (or blink), you're dead.
-->'''The Doctor''': Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And ''don't blink''. Good luck.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Shows up in a few ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books:
** ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'': Teatime's plan to assassinate the eponymous Santa Claus pastiche is to control the children's thoughts so that they no longer believe in him.
** Additionally, it's well-known on the Disc that putting a blanket over your head repels the bogeyman. This is all fine and good, but as seen in ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'' and ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', if you put the blanket over the ''bogeyman's'' head he'll be briefly overcome with doubt as to ''his own'' existence.
* Hober Mallow's strategy for the war against Korell in ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' consists of ''not'' making any major offences. The Foundation defends its territory, but that's basically all. How does this work to win the Foundation the war? [[spoiler:Korell is economically dependent on the Foundation -- thanks to Hober Mallow, as it happens -- and so Korell finds itself without any population-unifying bombardments, just a steadily worsening economy and quality of life as more and more things shut down without spare parts from the Foundation.]]
* Hundreds of years before ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: Spore'', the ActualPacifist Ithorians managed to [[SealedEvilInACan seal Spore up]] and bury it in an asteroid behind a DoorOfDoom with some warnings. In the present day foreign AsteroidMiners are poking around those asteroids looking for minerals with the Ithorians' permission, and they don't do a thing to prevent the miners from [[DugTooDeep digging too far into that one]]. They have ''one'' Ithorian watching, who does nothing to stop them even though she and most other Ithorians know about and dread the thought of Spore's escape. She only acts ''after'' it gets out.
** In part we see that keeping quiet would have been a good idea, since that Ithorian had told someone from TheEmpire, which promptly sends someone who's clueless about how EvilIsNotAToy, and the Imperials wouldn't be the only ones who'd want to break it out to use it. But ''not'' telling the miners meant they thought there [[SchmuckBait might be treasure in there]]. This all could have been avoided if they'd picked a more remote asteroid.
* In ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal is so stupid that it assumes that if you can't see it, then it can't see you. The best way to escape is to place a towel over your head. It will then get confused and wander away.
** Indeed, in [[VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy the text adventure]], this bit of information is relevant, but not enough in and of itself; [[spoiler:to get the Beast to stop chasing you, you need to first say your name when he asks, then, with the towel over your head, carve your name into the list of his previous victims. He'll conclude that he ate you in a fit of absent-mindedness (as his mind is very frequently absent), and go to sleep. If you don't do all this, the Beast will eventually realize his mistake and eat you.]]
* While the events of the first two books in the ''Literature/KnightAndRogueSeries'' were personal, the third book has them just happening across a series of crimes. The Michael insists on helping, Fisk believes the best way to handle the situation is to go about their daily lives.
* ''Literature/TheLastUnicorn'': "You mustn't run from anything immortal. It attracts their attention."
* Dean Ing's ''Soft Targets'', a group of TV executives enact a plan to weaken terrorists by either ignoring their activities or covering them in a way that [[TooFunnyToBeEvil makes them into laughingstocks]]. When this starts to impair terrorist recruiting and funding, several of the executives are kidnapped in an attempt to lift the informal interdiction of terrorism news.
* ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' has a variation in a monster called a Screeling. It will chase down and disembowel anything that runs away from it, but calmly walking away as if it isn't there will confuse it for a while, giving you time to escape, or at least put some distance between you and it and come up with a plan.
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', this is how [[spoiler:Semirhage]] is finally broken. That or her being simply humiliated by being [[spoiler:spanked]].
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'': When DM's car turns schizoid and malevolent (episode "What A THree-Point Turn-Up For The Book"), he pretends to ignore it in hopes it will become complacent, then he can jump into the driver's seat. It doesn't work.

* The final issue of ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'', significantly titled "[[WhatIf If...]]", at one point had Paperinik and the US Army face an army of Evronian {{Super Soldier}}s with immense strength (enough to tear through tank armor ''bare-handed'' that, having been created with [[{{Jerkass}} Angus Fangus]]' DNA, have an uncanny ability to find and [[EmotionEater feed on negative emotions]], with them being defeated this way the moment Paperinik realizes their immense strength requires their opponents to have hostile thoughts.

* In the essay-fic [[FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed Equestria: A History Revealed]], the LemonyNarrator takes this approach when citing sources that clearly contradict her [[InsaneTrollLogic own theories]]. At her worst, she demeans the opposing author's intelligence, and crosses out the offending text with a strikethrough.

* ''Fanfic/TheParselmouthOfGryffindor'': Sometimes on purpose, sometimes unwittingly, this is how Hermione approaches most problems that stumped the characters in canon. Thoroughly ignoring [[TheBully Draco]]'s taunts over and over throughout first year gets them mostly rid of him by Second Year, and Hermione and Ron aren't involved at all in First Year's Troll shenanigans, which end up being easily solved by Peeves.

* Used in the first ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984'': the FinalGirl actually turns her back on Freddy Krueger just as he is about to stab her, and he promptly ceases to exist. At least, until the sequel. (Or just the RevisedEnding, at that.)

* At the end of ''Film/{{Sphere}}'', in order to get rid of the destructive abilities the namesake Sphere had given them, the protagonists agree to use their power to make themselves forget about the Sphere and all of their activities involving it. In the original novel, at least, this works because the Sphere, by its own admission, didn't ''grant'' them these abilities -- they already had them, but it took the Sphere to make them aware of it so they could use them. Yeah, it's kind of a weird book.
* ''Film/{{Untraceable}}'''s plot revolves around a website with streaming video of murders. The more hits on the website, the faster the victim dies.
* ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel'': [[Creator/WilliamShatner Captain Buck Murdock of Alpha Beta Base]] is debating with a junior officer whether they should do anything about the impending crash landing of the lunar shuttle.

* ''Film/CarryOnUpTheKhyber'': Used to great comic effect where the senior officers and ambassador have a dinner party and steadfastly ignore the pitched battle just outside, even when explosions blow in the windows and make plaster fall over the meal.
* In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' Commander Riker notices a red light come on the instrument panel of the ''Phoenix'' (Earth's first warp-capable ship, which was a rattletrap built on an old nuclear ICBM frame). Zephram Cochrane slaps the side of the panel with his hand, then tells Riker and Commander [=LaForge=] to "ignore it".

-->'''Brighton:''' Look, sir, we can't just do nothing.
-->'''General Allenby:''' Why not? It's usually best.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''
** A two part episode of uses a similar weapon: a device that can kill anyone with a single thought. However, being a Vulcan invention, it only works on the aggressive. It is rendered useless when the protagonists stop (conventionally) fighting and empty their minds of aggressive thoughts.
** Something similar was done in another episode involving a group of soldiers that had been genetically engineered and mentally programmed as perfect killing machines: but are not programmed to kill people who don't fight back. If you don't fight then, they can't/won't do anything. The episode ends with them forced in to a stalemate with the government that created them (and wasn't nice enough to [=UNprogram=] them afterward) leaving them with the option of "cooperate or everything stays screwed."
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': J.D. found out that the best thing he could do for the patient who was turfed to every department in the hospital is to do nothing and let things heal themselves, since the patient was not actually suffering from any disease at all, but rather had a high fever that resulted from the rapidly increasing medications he was being given as he was moved from department to department, each department unable to find a problem and giving him generic medication in the hopes of fixing whatever was wrong with him. Since there was no disease, nobody could find a disease, and kept transferring him to a new department in the hopes that they could fix him, and he eventually ended up with JD, who actually ''forgot'' about the patient entirely, and was told after the fact that his "treatment" was brilliant since the fever broke when he stopped being stuffed with drugs. Apparently this happens in real life.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': At the end of "Twisted," with an incredibly powerful entity twisting and altering the ship, their ultimate solution is the decidedly odd, but logical ([[StrawVulcan Tuvok said it, so it must be!]]) "solution" of not doing anything. That said, nothing else the crew had tried worked and all they could do was to repeat already ineffective moves. So, the best option remaining would be to wait and see if things change.

* ''Series/{{Merlin 1998}}'': [[spoiler: Queen Mab is defeated using this method. When people stop believing in her and refuse to acknowledge that she is important anymore, she fades away.]]
* There are a couple ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episodes where this stratagem is used to weaken the MonsterOfTheWeek before taking further measures to finally defeat it:
** In "Wolf in the Fold", an entity that [[EmotionEater feeds on fear]] is neutralized by tranquilizing the crew, after which it is beamed into space with [[WeaponizedTeleportation the transporter set on wide dispersion]].
** In "Day of the Dove": an entity that feeds on hatred is weakened when a truce is made between Federation and Klingon combatants, then driven off when the two sides start ''laughing'' at it.

* Shows up in a few ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books.

* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', this is how [[spoiler: Semirhage]] is finally broken.
** That or her being simply humiliated by being [[spoiler: spanked]].
* While the events of the first two books in the ''Literature/KnightAndRogueSeries'' were personal, the third book has them just happening across a series of crimes. The Michael insists on helping, Fisk believes the best way to handle the situation is to go about their daily lives.
* Dean Ing's ''Soft Targets'', a group of TV executives enact a plan to weaken terrorists by either ignoring their activities or covering them in a way that [[TooFunnyToBeEvil makes them into laughingstocks]]. When this starts to impair terrorist recruiting and funding, several of the executives are kidnapped in an attempt to lift the informal interdiction of terrorism news.
* Hundreds of years before ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: Spore'', the ActualPacifist Ithorians managed to [[SealedEvilInACan seal Spore up]] and bury it in an asteroid behind a DoorOfDoom with some warnings. In the present day foreign AsteroidMiners are poking around those asteroids looking for minerals with the Ithorians' permission, and they don't do a thing to prevent the miners from [[DugTooDeep digging too far into that one]]. They have ''one'' Ithorian watching, who does nothing to stop them even though she and most other Ithorians know about and dread the thought of Spore's escape. She only acts ''after'' it gets out.
** In part we see that keeping quiet would have been a good idea, since that Ithorian had told someone from TheEmpire, which promptly sends someone who's clueless about how EvilIsNotAToy, and the Imperials wouldn't be the only ones who'd want to break it out to use it. But ''not'' telling the miners meant they thought there [[SchmuckBait might be treasure in there]]. This all could have been avoided if they'd picked a more remote asteroid.
* Hober Mallow's strategy for the war against Korell in ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' consists of ''not'' making any major offences. The Foundation defends its territory, but that's basically all. How does this work to win the Foundation the war? [[spoiler:Korell is economically dependent on the Foundation -- thanks to Hober Mallow, as it happens -- and so Korell finds itself without any population-unifying bombardments, just a steadily worsening economy and quality of life as more and more things shut down without spare parts from the Foundation.]]
* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': From [[http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/content_page/9/163 Ayla and the Late Trevor James Goodkind]]:
--> David was really excited about his birthday party, and about moving up so he was ‘only one year younger than Shrimpy’.\\
“David!” Mother didn’t allow that sort of language in public, much less at the dinner table. “Apologize to your brother at once!”\\
“Mother, it’s all right. I am a shrimp,” I calmly admitted. It wasn’t that I was trying to protect David. No, I was going to be quite happy to see him get in trouble in a few seconds. For several weeks, I had been trying a new strategy: if none of his insults appeared to bother me, he might eventually give up.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In a ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' storyline, [[GenreSavvy expert video gamer Jason]] spends a long time struggling to defeat the "Red Orb Guardian," but when he finally puts the controller down his eternally clueless sister Paige gets past it in moments -- she just walked right by, and the monster didn't attack because she didn't attack it. When she explains what she did, Jason is flabbergasted at the thought of an [[BonusBoss incredibly powerful enemy]] you're ''not'' supposed to fight.
** It gets a lampshade when Jason calls this counter-intuitive, and Paige points out that he still harasses her despite the fact that her response is always to pound the snot out of him.
[[/folder]]

* This was Allison Danger's advice for Leva Bates when Regeneration X discovered Wrestling/MsChif was sneaking through the Wrestling/{{SHIMMER}} locker room on volume 44 and ended up breathing down their backs. This proved pretty hard to do as they discovered [=MsChif=] had {{no sense of personal space}} but luckily for them, "Chif" had no malicious intentions.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Warhammer 40k]], one of the best ways to handle something extremely durable but either not very devastating or that has a very small [[InstantDeathRadius threat range]] is to do just this. In fact, the most powerful units in the game aren't those with the best statlines or stuff (these tend to be CoolButInefficient), but those with either the [[FlyingBrick mobility to get their alright statlines to where they are most effective]], or [[ConfusionFu some]] [[ScrappyMechanic other]] [[GameBreaker unusual]] [[MookMaker ability]], or some evident lack of a WeaksauceWeakness in the current metagame.
** The Emperor's plan to get rid of Chaos involved all of humanity doing this to the Chaos gods. This...didn't really work.

* The entire point of ''VideoGame/{{slender}}'' is to collect the 8 pages/clues. If you pay attention to slenderman or look for him, you lose.
** Alternatively, if you get lost in the house/bathroom thing, you lose (mostly due to slendy finding you).

* Webcomic ''Webcomic/ElfOnlyInn'', being set in a chat room, makes this strategy extremely sensible in reality, but very odd in roleplay. Check [[http://www.elfonlyinn.net/d/20021001.html here]] (actually, read the entire arc, starting from [[http://www.elfonlyinn.net/d/20020927.html here]], and especially [[http://www.elfonlyinn.net/d/20021013.html this strip]]) for an example of its use.
-->'''King Herman:''' I have a very hard time listening to your speech about ignoring the long-term dangers of deforestation... WHILE A BIG RED DEVIL IS WASHING THE WALLS OF YOUR INN WITH BLOOD IN A VILE ORGY OF CARNAGE!!!!
-->'''Lord Elf:''' ((No one is role playing with the Lord of Dorkness. [...] All he wants to do is make himself the center of attention by killing everyone and eating their soul. Just ''pretend he's not there''.))
--->''And an earlier strip:''
-->'''Lord of Dorkness:''' *eats Lord Elf's soul*
-->''Lord Elf ignores him and goes on talking.''
-->'''Lord of Dorkness:''' HELLO? I'm eating your SOUL, here!

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': A halloween episode included the story "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores," about [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant advertising mascots]] that come to life and destroy Springfield. As discovered by Lisa and Paul Anka (!), the key to survival is "just don't look." Because any ad that doesn't get attention, quickly vanishes.
-->'''Lisa:''' ''(to the one holdout being distracted by a donut ad)'' Don't make us poke your eyes out, Dad!
* In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (the '80s series), the heroes use the technique of "wu wei" (basically, "do nothing") to stop the Technodrome. Understandably, this technique was never used again. This itself is a rather... ''unusual'' interpretation of the idea of wu wei, which is more along the lines of "don't waste time thinking, just act, guided by intuition." Basically, the opposite of doing nothing. In this case as many, the RuleOfFunny wins out.
* ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'': an egotistical computerized house appears as the villain. The only way to make it stop was to completely ignore it, causing it to overheat in its efforts to get attention.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Hawk and Dove," the more passive of the brothers stops Ares's war machine in the end by refusing to fight it. To clarify, the machine was powered by aggression.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheKingAndI'' (the animated film), the heroes' tactic against a giant sea monster that is about to eat the ship is to Whistle a Happy Tune. It works - the monster is just an illusion produced by the bad guy.

* In the final episode of the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' cartoon played this trope smoothly. Ganon's minions overthrew Ganon and attempted to attack North Palace by themselves, which for them ended in hilarious disaster.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episodes "Cartoon Wars" (Part I and Part II), the people of South Park decide to literally bury their heads in the sand, so as to show Islamists that they have no part in the insult to Muhammad.
** In another episode, everyone decides they've had enough with Cartman's horrible attitude and behavior and decide to ignore him knowing that he craves attention. The act causes Cartman to believe he is dead and is a wandering spirit.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had the family using this approach to deal with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CW_fc7A06E giant squid]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', Ford and Dipper are exploring an alien ship when they accidentally activate its security droids. Since they react to adrenaline, the most effective method is to control your fear and ignore them, but Dipper can't. Dipper eventually faces one down, but since he no longer fears it, it simply shuts off.
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "Mxyzpixilated", Superman puts on a show of indifference when Mxy transforms the rest of the ''Daily Planet'' staff into animals and threatens to expose his SecretIdentity. This provokes the imp into accepting a higher-stakes challenge, where he will have to go away forever (instead of just for ninety days) if he loses.
* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', a group of lesser villains forms a superhero team of their own to steal Ben's thunder. Rather than fight or even expose them, Ben just puts himself on the sidelines, even going as far as to watch paint dry. Sure enough, without Ben to unite against, the villains' clashing egos cause the team to fall apart, which was what Ben was gambling on.

* ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'':
** In ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'', you have a rare chance of seeing a poster that spawns Golden Freddy, an animatronic that will crash your game if you stare at it for too long. The way you get rid of it? Look back at the monitor, and it will vanish.

* A later episode of the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' cartoon played this trope smoothly. Ganon's minions overthrew Ganon and attempted to attack North Palace by themselves, which for them ended in hilarious disaster.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', a group of lesser villains form a superhero team of their own to steal Ben's thunder. Rather than fight or even expose them, Ben just puts himself on the sidelines, even going as far as to watch paint dry. Sure enough, without Ben to unite against, the villains' clashing egos causes the team to fall apart, which was what Ben was gambling on.

* {{Troll}}s, on forums: "DontFeedTheTroll!" The idea being we don't reward kids for pooping their pants.
** This saying is very true, but is very hard to put into practice when the forum has a large community. Trolls know that the more active the forum community are and the more members there are, the easier it will be for the troll to bait someone into responding to their antics because there is always at least one person who can't ignore the troll. Small communities in forums or forums that are very closed off (or has a very active moderation team) usually will have less trolls because everyone knows what to do when they encounter one.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Uru}}: Path of the Shell'', the penultimate puzzle comprised a room with a large, rollable ball on a large,-rollable-ball-sized track. The understood goal was to get past the ball to the end of the track. The solution, which had to be deduced from a series of abstruse clues littered throughout a five-volume set of prophetical books, was [[spoiler: to stand right next to the track and do absolutely nothing for fifteen minutes]].
* Seems to be the solution to Pandora's Box in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken''. Those who seek to destroy it, such as Ryu, end up consumed by it. Those who seek something out of it get a JackassGenie result, such as Hwaorang fighting an army of Akumas or it making Rufus and Zangief [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment handsome and slender]]. Those who really, truly do not care about it (such as Poison) cause it to disappear in a PuffOfLogic.

** Alternatively, if you get lost in the house/bathroom thing, you lose (mostly due to slendy finding you)
* At the end of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones'', [[spoiler: the Prince confronts his dark side in his mind. However, as the Dark Side is made out of the Prince's desire to fight, (and other negative/destructive emotions), fighting him only causes him to multiply. The solution is to walk past him.]]
* The attack of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal in ''VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' video game can be stalled, if not actually defeated, by the same means listed above under Literature.

* In ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'', you have a rare chance of seeing a poster that spawns Golden Freddy, an animatronic that will crash your game if you stare at it for too long. The way you get rid of it? Look back at the monitor, and it will vanish.
* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'' has this in the form of Phantom Freddy, one of the hallucinatory enemies. He appears to be staring at you through the window and creeping into your office, but since it ''is'' just a hallucination it can't actually hurt you. Falling for the distraction, however, will let the very ''real'' Springtrap get closer to the office.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', this is one way to defeat the Greater Dog miniboss [[PacifistRun without killing it]]. Repeatedly selecting the "Ignore" Act will eventually cause it to get bored and go away.
* Played with in ''Just Ignore Them''. The title suggests that not acknowledging them will help, Mark's mother suggests to ignore them to make them go away and actually talking about them ''increases'' the risk of them harming you or those around you. [[spoiler: But they are manifactured beings that aim at specific people for specific reasons, so ignoring them is '''not''' an option, if you are their target or in their way]]. This shows quite well when [[spoiler: the pilot and all business class passengers around Mark got killed]], yet [[spoiler: Neason from economy and Brea who had been on the toilet]] didn't even notice anything happening.

** On that note, scabs. Picking at them can reopen the wound. Best just let the scab fall apart on it's own.

* ''Film/FreddyVsJason'' had a local GovernmentConspiracy involving a massive cover up of everything Freddy Krueger had done, down to interring all the surviving kids in an asylum and medicating them so they can't have dreams, because Freddie gets his power from kids being afraid of him. Freddy averts this trope by setting lose ''another'' [[Franchise/FridayThe13th serial killer]], causing the kids to hear about Freddie when the RevealingCoverup begins to unravel due to the adults wondering if Freddy is back.

Compare SheatheYourSword, where the only way to defeat a foe is to not attack it.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': From [[http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/content_page/9/163 Ayla and the Late Trevor James Goodkind]]:
--> David was really excited about his birthday party, and about moving up so he was ‘only one year younger than Shrimpy’.\\
“David!” Mother didn’t allow that sort of language in public, much less at the dinner table. “Apologize to your brother at once!”\\
“Mother, it’s all right. I am a shrimp,” I calmly admitted. It wasn’t that I was trying to protect David. No, I was going to be quite happy to see him get in trouble in a few seconds. For several weeks, I had been trying a new strategy: if none of his insults appeared to bother me, he might eventually give up.
[[/folder]]

* In the ''Literature/WheelOfTime'', this is how [[spoiler: Semirhage]] is finally broken.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', a group of lesser villains form a superhero team of their own to steal Ben's thunder. Rather than fight or even expose them, Ben just puts himself on the sidelines, even going as far as to watch paint dry. Sure enough, without Ben to unite against, the villains' clashing egos causes the team to fall apart, [[GenreSavvy which was what Ben was gambling on.]]

* General Allenby in ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' qualifies, especially when Damascus dissolves into chaos late in the film:

-->'''Allenby:''' Why not? It's usually best.

* Hober Mallow's strategy for the war against Korell in Literature/{{Foundation}} consists of ''not'' making any major offences. The Foundation defends its territory, but that's basically all. How does this work to win the Foundation the war? [[spoiler: Korell is economically dependent on the Foundation -- thanks to Hober Mallow, as it happens -- and so Korell finds itself without any population-unifying bombardments, just a steadily worsening economy and quality of life as more and more things shut down without spare parts from the Foundation.]]