The Bernoulli Network for the Behavioral Sciences invites you to the research talk 

"Deliberate Ignorance: Why We Choose Not to Know"

held by Prof. Dr. Ralph Hertwig from Max Planck Institute for Human Development .

No registration required.

Deliberate Ignorance: Why We Choose Not to Know
Prof. Dr. Ralph Hertwig, Max Planck Institute for Human Development 

Aristotle claimed that humans “by nature desire to know.” Hobbes called curiosity “the lust of the mind,” and Maslow described our urge to know as an instinct-like “burning curiosity.” Yet we often choose not to know. We often decline potentially painful medical information. Günter Grass did not want to read his Stasi file. Paul Feyerabend cautioned against trying to know everything about those close to us. Deliberate ignorance is far from rare—especially in consequential decisions. This talk will ask: When is not knowing reasonable, and when is it reckless? Can individuals or societies ever have a moral obligation to remain ignorant? Who is homo ignorans—what distinguishes seekers from non-seekers of information? Which psychological mechanisms lead us to avert our gaze, and how can these processes be modeled? How prevalent is deliberate ignorance in times of societal transformation, and how does it evolve from childhood through old age?

Literature: Hertwig, R., & Engel, C. (2016). Homo ignorans: Deliberately choosing not to know. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(3), 359–372.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616635594