I Don’t Want to Hear About it: Rational Ignorance among Duty-Oriented Consumers

Karine Nyborg

 

Published in:

Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 79, 263-274.  

Abstract

Individuals with a preference for keeping moral obligations may dislike learning that voluntary contributions are socially valuable: such information can trigger unpleasant feelings of cognitive dissonance. I show that if the initial belief about the social value of contributions is too low to merit a moral responsibility to contribute, duty-oriented consumers are willing to pay to avoid information. Information campaigns can make such consumers contribute by providing them with unwanted information.

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Published Apr. 8, 2011 10:55 AM - Last modified Dec. 10, 2015 3:28 PM