“I’d rather not know.” The temptation to stick your head in the sand is often strong. According to research published by the American Psychological Association, when given the opportunity to learn how their actions will affect someone else, 40% of people decide not to take it. Why do we choose ignorance? A study tries to give an answer, analyzing the dynamics that lead people to opt for the ‘ostrich move’.
Choosing not to learn the consequences of an action allows people to act selfishly while maintaining a positive self-image, research suggests. “Examples of willful ignorance abound in everyday life”, highlights the lead author of the work published in the journal ‘Psychological Bulletin’, Linh Vu of the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands). An example? “When consumers ignore information about the problematic origins of the products they buy,” she reports. “So we wanted to know how widespread and harmful willful ignorance is and why people practice it.”
I study
Vu and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 22 studies with a total of 6,531 participants. The studies in question were all conducted in research labs in the United States or Western Europe, or online (on platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk), and most followed a protocol in which some participants were told the consequences of their actions, while others could choose whether to learn them or not. In one of these jobs, for example, participants had to decide whether to receive a smaller reward (5 dollars) or a larger one (6). By choosing the smallest, another (anonymous) person or charity would also receive the same amount. By choosing the higher share, the other recipient would have only received 1 dollar. One group was offered the option of knowing or not knowing the consequences of their choice. While another was automatically notified upon departure.
By analyzing studies of this type, scientists found that a significant portion of people (40% in fact) intentionally chose not to know, and often did so to have an excuse to act selfishly, according to experts. This willful ignorance was in fact correlated with lower altruism: People were 15.6% more likely to be generous to someone else when they were informed of the consequences of their choice, compared to when they were allowed to remain ignorant.
Researchers have speculated on what the reasons for willful ignorance might be: It may be that some people behave altruistically because they want to maintain a positive image of themselves as altruistic people, experts reflect. In these cases, willful ignorance may allow them to maintain that self-image without having to act altruistically. The meta-analysis confirmed this, according to study co-author Shaul Shalvi, professor of behavioral ethics at the University of Amsterdam. That’s because people who chose to know the consequences of their actions were 7 percentage points more likely to be generous than participants who were given information by default. This suggests that truly altruistic people choose to learn the consequences of their actions.
“The results are fascinating – comments Shalvi – as they suggest that many of the altruistic behaviors we observe are driven by the desire to behave as others expect us to. While most people are willing to do the right thing when they are fully informed of the consequences of one’s actions, this willingness is not always due to people caring for others. Part of the reason why people act altruistically is due to social pressures and the desire to see themselves in a good light. Because being righteous is often expensive and requires people to give up their time, money and effort. Ignorance on the other hand offers an easy way out.” According to the authors, future research should aim to examine these mechanisms in different contexts and study ways to counter such behavior.
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