A growing number of Britons claim they are actively avoiding the news out of frustration at coverage of Brexit, research has found, even as news websites report record numbers of visitors wanting to read about major developments.

The discrepancy suggests that while many people publicly insist they are avoiding news about the UK’s ongoing political crisis, some may be unable to stop themselves secretly gorging on updates about Britain leaving the EU.

YouGov polling commissioned by the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute found that a substantial 35% of Britons now insist they actively attempt to avoid the news “due to frustration over the intractable and polarising nature” of the Brexit debate.

Most cited the negative impact the news has on their mood, along with other concerns such as a sense of exasperation that there is nothing that individuals can do to influence the country’s ongoing political crisis. Remain voters were particularly likely to say their emotions were being negatively affected by news stories, according to the institute’s annual report on the state of the digital news industry.

However, individuals at four major national British news websites said they had seen record numbers of visitors to their outlets during major developments in the Brexit process – suggesting the British public may be lying to themselves, at least when it comes to reading about key political developments.

One executive at a major national news website said, while some people may be actively staying away, they had seen enormous interest as a result of Brexit news stories. Another said they were finding that strong performance by news stories about Brexit was masking declines elsewhere on their site.

According to one BBC insider, the BBC News website attracted 28 million unique visitors in January on the day of parliament’s first meaningful vote on Theresa May’s Brexit day, while 25 million checked the website the following day when it was covering the no-confidence vote in the prime minister.

Alleged Brexit fatigue among the British public has also been used by some news programmes to justify declining audiences.

Channel 4 said on Tuesday that the exasperation with the process was partly responsible for a fall in the number of people watching its news programme, while BBC Radio 4’s Today programme has also previously attributed fluctuating listening figures to exasperation with the process.

The Reuters Institute report, which covers 38 different regions around the world, found that the social media habits of consumers in many countries are changing. In many regions people are spending less time with Facebook and more time with WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube than this time last year.

Britons also say they are losing trust in the news, with the authors attributing this to increased political polarisation: “Even the most trusted brands like the BBC are seen by many as pushing or suppressing agendas – especially over polarising issues like Brexit and climate change.”