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

Published in

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 79 (3), pages 263–274, 2011.
 

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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By Karine Nyborg
Published Feb. 24, 2012 12:18 PM - Last modified Feb. 24, 2012 12:22 PM