Rational ignorance: what it is and how it can help us

Rational ignorance is a paradox: sometimes, not knowing something helps us to progress.

Decision-making could be said to be a psychological capacity that allows people to choose the most appropriate option among those available, mentally anticipating the possible long-term consequences of each and foreseeing the possible advantages of each.

However, we do not always take the most beneficial option in the long term and sometimes we are guided by mental heuristics, as in the case of rational ignorance, which is defined as a term used to designate situations in which an individual deduces that the costs of acquiring new knowledge outweigh the advantages that could be gained by having secured that new learning.

In this article we will see what the concept of rational ignorance consists of and for this we will expose some daily examples that can illustrate it, as well as some contexts in which this concept can have influence.

What is rational ignorance?

Rational ignorance is a concept that is used to refer to those situations in which the cost of learning something new outweighs the benefits of having consolidated the new learning.. In other words, according to this concept, people will choose not to make an effort to gather more information on a given topic if doing so would entail more costs than the benefits obtained; therefore, they would choose to act without having all the information they could possibly gather in relation to a decision they should make.

The term rational ignorance might seem paradoxical or contradictory at first glance; however, it does not have to be, since we cannot know everything nor do we have enough time to gather all the detailed information regarding the multiple options presented to us when making a decision. Therefore, we tend to opt for the decision that seems to us to be the most beneficial, taking into account the cost-benefit based on the information available to us at the time.

This concept of rational ignorance was coined by the American economist Anthony Downs in 1957, who specialized in institutional and political economics.He is also the precursor of rational choice theory, a theoretical framework developed within the fields of political science and economics that is often used to understand and formally model the economic and social behavior of people.

From the perspective of rational choice theory, it is understood that people tend to reduce risks or costs by tend to reduce risks or costs in time, effort and/or money, in addition to maximizing their utility-benefit; in other words, people tend to reduce risks or costs in time, effort and/or money, in addition to maximizing their utility-benefitIn other words, people tend to opt for what they consider will bring them more benefits and less for what could cause unfavorable results in relation to its cost. The concept of rational ignorance is also framed along the lines of this theory.

The term rational ignorance was used by Anthony Downs mainly in the field of economics; however, the term has also been used in other disciplines related to the study of rationality and human choice, such as psychology, sociology or philosophy, among others. related to the study of rationality and human choice, such as psychology, sociology or philosophy, among others.

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Everyday examples

Rational ignorance could be said to be a heuristic way of making decisions in our day-to-day lives and around various issues despite the fact that many times the choice made is not the most optimal or the most beneficial in the long run. Therefore, it is useful to look at some everyday examples to better understand this concept.

1. When deciding on the academic/labor future

An example of rational ignorance would be that of a student who has just finished high school and decides to stop studying to find a job as soon as possible and be able to emancipate himself because he considers that studying at least another 4 years to be able to aspire to a job that could be better remunerated, studying to work in what he considers would be his vacation, or simply to acquire new knowledge that could be valuable and interesting, does not compensate all the money he must invest and the hours of study that he must use to obtain the degree.

2. When buying a product

Another example of rational ignorance would be when a person is shopping at the supermarket and must decide what kind of cereals to choose for breakfast and simply chooses those with less sugars, instead of making a more thorough analysis by informing himself about other ingredients and nutrients they may have, because having less sugar does not mean that they are healthier, as the sugars in other cereals that have a higher content could come from natural sources and in turn contain other more beneficial components such as fiber.

3. When voting for a political party

It would also be a good example, applying rational ignorance in the field of politics, the case of a voter who considers that gathering all possible information about all the proposals and government plans of all the political parties running in the elections is a high cost in terms of time and effort, so he decides to make his voting decision based on the information he already has about the different political parties, even if it may be minimal.

Rational ignorance in the case of the choice to vote for a political party could also influence the fact that the voter considers that his vote will not be decisive; therefore, he considers that it is not worth investing his time and effort in analyzing each political party in detail to make the decision to vote for the party that best fits his ideas and interests or who he considers can do more good for his country.

As we can see in the examples we have just explained in reference to the concept of rational ignorance, although it may seem paradoxical, all of them have been rational decisions, since the person has weighed the costs-benefits and has opted for the decision he considers most optimal and beneficial at the time of taking it; even though in the long term, if he had invested more effort, perhaps he could have opted for another decision that will provide him with more benefits.

Intolerance to uncertainty would also play an important role here, since in all these cases people have preferred to choose based on the resources or knowledge they already have regarding the decision to be made, instead of gathering more information with the aim of weighing up what would be the best decision to make.

Positive and negative aspects of rational ignorance in making decisions.

Using rational ignorance is a point of reference when making decisions that has its benefits in certain situations, while in others it could be rather detrimental or, at least, not as beneficial as having invested an effort in opting for the more costly path.

For example, in the case of choosing which sports shoes to buy in a sports store, perhaps it is a good point of reference to choose the shoes of a brand that you already know because you have had other pairs of the same that have been comfortable and durable; instead of analyzing various factors of several brands, using time that you consider very valuable that you could spend on doing other activities that you consider more important to be analyzing various sports brands.

On the other hand, in the case of opting for your academic and, consequently, labor future, it may not be the best option to opt for a path with the information you have at that moment without reloading all the necessary information to analyze all the available options carefully and thus choose the one that could be most beneficial in the long run based on your own interests (e.g. vocation, remuneration (e.g. vocation, remuneration, etc.).

The same as in the previous case occurs when choosing the food to buy. And is that making a decision from rational ignorance, although in the short term may seem advantageous in terms of saving time and / or money, in the long term could be detrimental in the sense that it would be more beneficial to your health to opt for healthier foods, and for this, you should analyze other factors, such as the ingredients contained in different products, rather than relying solely on an ingredient such as sugar or simply the price.