Deliberate Ignorance: Choosing Not to Know

397 Pages·2021·4.431 MB·English

by  Ralph Hertwig (editor), Christoph Engel (editor)

Deliberate Ignorance
Choosing Not to Know
Strüngmann Forum Reports
Julia R. Lupp, series editor
The Ernst Strüngmann Forum is made possible through
the generous support of the Ernst Strüngmann Foundation,
inaugurated by Dr. Andreas and Dr. Thomas Strüngmann.
This Forum was supported by the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Deliberate Ignorance
Choosing Not to Know
Edited by
Ralph Hertwig and Christoph Engel
Program Advisory Committee:
Gordon D. A. Brown, Christoph Engel, Simon Gächter,
Ralph Hertwig, Julia R. Lupp, and Richard McElreath
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2020 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
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the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies
Series Editor: J. R. Lupp
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Lektorat: BerlinScienceWorks
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
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Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hertwig, Ralph, editor. | Engel, Christoph, 1956- editor.
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T iHtlee:r tDweigli baenrda tCe higrinsotorapnhc Ee n: gcehlo. o sing not to know / edited by Ralph
D eHsecrrtiwptiigo na:n Cd aCmhbrirsitdogpeh, MEnagsesla.c husetts : The MIT Press, [2020] | Series:
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Sintdrüenxg. mann forum reports | Includes bibliographical references and
I d ienndteix e. rs: LCCN 2020010682 | ISBN 9780262045599 (paperback)
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LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010682
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Contents
List of Contributors vii
Preface xi
The Phenomenon
1 Homo Ignorans: Deliberately Choosing Not to Know 3
Ralph Hertwig and Christoph Engel
2 The Complex Dynamics of Deliberate Ignorance and the 19
Desire to Know in Times of Transformation:
The Case of Germany
Dagmar Ellerbrock and Ralph Hertwig
3 Utilizing Strategic Ignorance in Negotiations 39
Sarah Auster and Jason Dana
4 Blinding to Remove Biases in Science and Society 51
Robert J. MacCoun
Deep Structure
5 The Deep Structure of Deliberate Ignorance: 65
Mapping the Terrain
Barry Schwartz, Peter J. Richerson, Benjamin E. Berkman,
Jens Frankenreiter, David Hagmann, Derek M. Isaacowitz,
Thorsten Pachur, Lael J. Schooler, and Peter Wehling
6 How Forgetting Aids Homo Ignorans 89
Lael J. Schooler
7 Willful Construction of Ignorance: A Tale of Two Ontologies 101
Stephan Lewandowsky
Models
8 Models of Deliberate Ignorance in Individual Choice 121
Gordon D. A. Brown and Lukasz Walasek
9 The Evolution of Deliberate Ignorance in Strategic 139
Interaction
Christian Hilbe and Laura Schmid
10 The Zoo of Models of Deliberate Ignorance 155
Pete C. Trimmer, Richard McElreath, Sarah Auster,
Gordon D. A. Brown, Jason Dana, Gerd Gigerenzer,
Russell Golman, Christian Hilbe, Anne Kandler,
Yaakov Kareev, Lael J. Schooler, and Nora Szech
vi Contents
Norms
11 Harry Potter and the Welfare of the Willfully Blinded 187
Felix Bierbrauer
12 Is There a Right Not to Know Genetic Information 199
about Oneself?
Benjamin E. Berkman
13 Re ections on Deliberate Ignorance 217
Lewis A. Kornhauser
14 Normative Implications of Deliberate Ignorance 241
Joachim I. Krueger, Ulrike Hahn, Dagmar Ellerbrock,
Simon Gächter, Ralph Hertwig, Lewis A. Kornhauser,
Christina Leuker, Nora Szech, and Michael R. Waldmann
Institutions
15 Institutions Promoting or Countering Deliberate Ignorance 275
Doron Teichman, Eric Talley, Stefanie Egidy, Christoph Engel,
Krishna P. Gummadi, Kristin Hagel, Stephan Lewandowsky,
Robert J. MacCoun, Sonja Utz, and Eyal Zamir
16 Deliberate Ignorance and the Law 299
Eyal Zamir and Roi Yair
17 Deliberate Ignorance: Present and Future 317
Christoph Engel and Ralph Hertwig
Bibliography 333
Subject Index 373
Strüngmann Forum Report Series 379
List of Contributors
Auster, Sarah Department of Decision Sciences, Bocconi University, 20136
Milan, Italy
Berkman, Benjamin E. Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of
Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1156, U.S.A.
Bierbrauer, Felix Center for Macroeconomic Research, University of
Cologne, 50923 Cologne, Germany
Brown, Gordon D. A. Department of Psychology, University of Warwick,
Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K.
Dana, Jason School of Management, Yale University, New Haven, CT
06511, U.S.A.
Egidy, Stefanie Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods,
53113 Bonn, Germany
Ellerbrock, Dagmar Department of History, Technische Universität
Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Engel, Christoph Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods,
53113 Bonn, Germany
Frankenreiter, Jens Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods,
53113 Bonn, Germany
Gächter, Simon School of Economics, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K.
Gigerenzer, Gerd Harding Center for Risk Literacy, Max Planck Institute
for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Golman, Russell Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, U.S.A.
Gummadi, Krishna P. Department of Networked Systems, Max Planck
Institute for Software Systems, 66123 Saarbruecken, Germany
Hagel, Kristin Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
Hagmann, David Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge,
MA 02138, U.S.A.
Hahn, Ulrike Department of Psychological Sciences, Birbeck University of
London, London WC1E 7HX, U.K.
viii List of Contributors
Hertwig, Ralph Department of Adaptive Rationality and Cognition, Max
Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Hilbe, Christian Max Planck Research Group Dynamics of Social Behavior,
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, 24306 Plön, Germany
Isaacowitz, Derek M. Department of Psychology, Northeastern University,
Boston, MA 02115, U.S.A.
Kandler, Anne Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Evolution,
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
Kareev, Yaakov Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, 91904 Jerusalem, Israel
Kornhauser, Lewis A. New York University School of Law, New York, NY
10012 U.S.A.
Krueger, Joachim I. Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological
Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, U.S.A.
Leuker, Christina Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for
Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Lewandowsky, Stephan School of Experimental Psychology, University of
Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TU, U.K.; and University of Western Australia, Crawley
WA 6009, Australia
MacCoun, Robert J. Law School, Department of Psychology, and Freeman
Spogli Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 90305, U.S.A.
McElreath, Richard Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture,
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
Pachur, Thorsten Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for
Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Richerson, Peter J. Department of Environmental Science and Policy,
University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.
Schmid, Laura Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria, 3400
Klosterneuburg, Austria
Schooler, Lael J. Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Syracuse,
NY 13244, U.S.A.
Schwartz, Barry Department of Management, Haas School of Business,
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.
Szech, Nora Department of Political Economy, Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany
List of Contributors ix
Talley, Eric Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership,
Columbia Law School, New York, NY 10025, U.S.A.
Teichman, Doron Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt.
Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel
Trimmer, Pete C. Faculty of Biology, Evolutionary Biology, University of
Bielefeld, Bielefeld 33615, Germany
Utz, Sonja Department of Social Media, Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien,
72076 Tübingen; and University of Tübingen, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
Walasek, Lukasz Department of Psychology, University of Warwick,
Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K.
Waldmann, Michael R. Department of Psychology, University of Göttingen,
37073 Göttingen, Germany
Wehling, Peter Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Goethe
University, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Yair, Roi Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus,
Jerusalem 9190501, Israel
Zamir, Eyal Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus,
Jerusalem 9190501, Israel