Research reveals people choose ignorance to be selfish
Story by Talker News
People choose to be ignorant so they can act selfishly, suggests a new study.
When given the choice to learn how their actions will affect someone else, four out of 10 adults chose ignorance to allow them an excuse to act selfishly, according to the research.
But psychologists also found people were more likely to be generous to someone else when they were told the consequences of their choice compared to when they were allowed to remain ignorant.
Study lead author Linh Vu said: “Examples of such willful ignorance abound in everyday life, such as when consumers ignore information about the problematic origins of the products they buy.
“We wanted to know just how prevalent and how harmful willful ignorance is, as well as why people engage in it.”
Vu and her colleagues analyzed the results of 22 previous studies involving more than 6,500 participants.
The studies were all conducted in research labs or online, and most followed a protocol in which some participants were told the consequences of their actions, while others could choose whether to learn the consequences or not.
In one example, participants had to decide between receiving a smaller reward ($5) or a larger reward ($6).
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One set of participants was offered the option to learn the consequences of their choice, while another group was automatically told the consequences.
Across the studies, the researchers found that when given an option, 40 percent of people chose not to learn the consequences of their actions.
The researchers said that willful ignorance was correlated with less altruism.
Vu, a doctoral candidate at the University of Amsterdam in Holland, said: "People were 15.6 percentage points more likely to be generous to someone else when they were told the consequences of their choice compared with when they were allowed to remain ignorant."
The researchers believe that one reason for willful ignorance might be that some people behave altruistically because they want to maintain a positive "self-image" of being an altruistic person.
Vu said: "In those cases, willful ignorance can allow them to maintain that self-image without having to act in an altruistic way."
Study co-author Professor Shaul Shalvi, also of the University of Amsterdam, says the analysis of previous studies backed that up.
He said: "That’s because people who chose to learn the consequences of their action were seven percentage points more likely to be generous compared with participants who were given information by default.
"That suggests that truly altruistic people choose to learn the consequences of their actions."
He added: “The findings are fascinating as they suggest a lot of the altruistic behaviors we observe are driven by a 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 their actions, this willingness is not always because people care for others.
"A part of the reasons why people act altruistically is due to societal pressures as well as their desire to view themselves in a good light.
"Since being righteous is often costly, demanding people to give up their time, money and effort, ignorance offers an easy way out.”
The research team, whose findings were published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, said future studies should aim to examine willful ignorance in more diverse settings and to investigate ways of combatting such behavior.
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