Research shows that choosing not to understand the consequences can allow people to behave selfishly while maintaining a positive self-image. A research report published by the American Psychological Association shows that when people can choose to understand how their actions will affect others, 40% of people would rather choose ignorance, often to make excuses for their selfish behavior.
"Examples of this kind of willful ignorance abound in daily life, such as when consumers ignore information about the questionable origins of the products they buy," said first author Linh Vu, MSc, a doctoral student at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. "我们想知道故意无知到底有多普遍，危害有多大，以及人们为什么会这样做。"
这项研究于10月19日发表在《心理学通报》杂志上。
Vu和她的同事对22项研究进行了荟萃分析，共有6531人参与。 The studies were conducted in research labs or online, and most used a protocol in which some participants were told the consequences of their actions, while others were given the choice whether to learn the consequences.
在一个例子中，参与者必须决定是接受较少的奖励（5美元）还是接受较多的奖励（6美元）。 If they choose $5, the anonymous peer (or charity) will also receive $5; but if they choose the larger reward of $6, the other recipient will only receive $1.一组参与者可以选择了解他们选择的后果，而另一组参与者则自动被告知后果。
在所有的研究中，研究人员发现，在有选择的情况下，40%的人选择不了解自己行为的后果。 This willful ignorance is associated with reduced altruism: When people are told the consequences of their choices, they are 15.6 percentage points more likely to be generous to others than when they are allowed to remain ignorant.
The researchers hypothesized that one reason for willful ignorance may be that some people act altruistically because they want to maintain a positive self-image as an altruist. In this case, willful ignorance allows them to maintain this self-image without having to act in an altruistic way.
The meta-analysis confirms this, said study co-author Dr. Shaul Shalvi, professor of behavioral ethics at the University of Amsterdam. This is because people who chose to know the consequences of their actions were 7 percentage points more likely to be generous than participants who received the information by default. This suggests that truly altruistic people choose to understand the consequences of their actions.
"These findings are fascinating because they suggest that much of the altruistic behavior we observe is driven by a desire to behave in a way that others expect," Shalvey said. "While most people are willing to do the right thing when they are fully aware of the consequences of their actions, this desire is not always because people care about others. People act altruistically in part because of social pressure and their desire to look good. Because acting out of courage is often costly, requiring people to give up time, money, and energy, ignorance provides a shortcut."
All studies included in this meta-analysis were conducted in laboratories in the United States or Western Europe, or on online platforms such as Amazon MechanicalTurk. The researchers say future research should look at examining willfully ignorant behavior in more diverse settings and examine ways to combat it.