Sugar is bad for us and sitting all day does not help our spine. We are also aware of how our SUV might not have been the most environmental choice of transportation. This is all common knowledge accompanying each of us every single day, at least in our unconscious mind – but don’t you dare tell someone!
Research has long shown support for the fact that we frequently do what we can to avoid negative information.
One reason for this appears to be an attempt to purposefully stay ‘in the dark’ as to have an excuse for our behaviour – we did not know better after all.
Christine Exley from Harvard and Judd Kessler from UPenn, gave classic behavioural experiments a new twist, revealing yet another reason for ignorance of bad information.
Even though their experiments were set up in a way in which people would not gain or lose anything by their action, they still avoided negative information – this time, however, explanations included lost focus or simply being lazy.
To get people to deal with negative information, the researchers suggest actively asking participants whether to learn or not. When individuals are required to choose between avoiding or acquiring information, they are usually less likely to turn a blind eye.
“Given the abundance of information today, understanding what motivates individuals to acquire and to avoid information remains an important area for future work,” says Exleyb.
What can we learn from this?
It is the most subtle of details that influence whether to purposefully acquire certain information. And often, people aren't as bad as previous experiments might show - they are simply lost in an overflow of daily stimuli.
The original paper: https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/21-080_661481e1-8282-47e0-a96f-4dad3a07deb0.pdf