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

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

However, we do not always take the most beneficial option in the long term and sometimes we are guided by mental heuristics as it is in the case of rational ignorance, which is defined as a term that allows designating those situations in which an individual deduces that the costs of acquiring new knowledge outweigh the benefits that could be gained from having established that new knowledge learning.

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

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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 that new learning. In other words, according to this concept, people will choose not to make an effort to collect more information on a given topic if doing so would cost more than the benefits obtained; therefore, one would choose to act without having all the information that could be collected in relation to any decision that should be made.

The term rational ignorance might seem paradoxical or contradictory at first glance; however, it does not have to be, since we cannot know everything and we do not have enough time to collect all the detailed information regarding the multiple options that are presented to us when taking a decision. For this reason, we usually opt for the decision that seems most beneficial to us, taking into account the cost-benefit based on the information that we have at our disposal at that moment.

This concept of rational ignorance It was coined by the American economist, specialized in institutional and political economics, Anthony Downs in 1957., in his treatise known as “An Economic Theory of Democracy”; being also the precursor of rational choice theory, a theoretical framework developed within the fields of political science and economics that is often used in order to understand and also formally model the economic and social behavior of persons.

From the perspective of rational choice theory it is understood that people they 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 opt for what they consider will bring them more benefits and less for what it could cause unflattering results in relation to its cost. In line with this theory, the concept of rational ignorance is also framed.

The rational ignorance term it was used by Anthony Downs mainly in the field of economics; however, this 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.

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everyday examples

Rational ignorance could be said to be a heuristic way of making decisions in our day to day life 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 term. Therefore, it is convenient that we see some everyday examples to better understand this concept.

1. When deciding the academic/work future

An example of rational ignorance would be that of a student who has just finished his studies at the institute and decides to stop studying to find a job as soon as possible and be able to emancipate because he considers that studying for at least another 4 years to be able to aspire to a job that could be better paid, study to work on what you think would be your vacation, or simply to acquire new knowledge that could be valuable and interesting to you, does not compensate all the money you must invest and the hours of study you must spend to take out the race.

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2. When buying a product

Another example of rational ignorance would be when a person is shopping at the supermarket and must decide what type of cereal to choose for breakfast and decides, simply, for those that have less sugar, instead of making a more exhaustive analysis informing about other ingredients and nutrients that they could have, since having less sugar does not it means that they are healthier, that the sugars of other cereals that have a higher content could come from natural sources and in turn contain other more beneficial components like fiber.

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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 that voter who considers that gathering all the information possible about all the proposals and plans of government of all the political parties that are presented to the elections suppose a high cost in terms of time and effort, so he decides to make his decision to vote based on the information he already had previously regarding the different political parties, even though he could be minimal.

Rational ignorance in the case of the election when voting for a political party could also influence the fact that the voter considers that his vote will not be decisive; for what he considers it is not worth investing his time and effort in analyzing each political party in detail to take the decision to vote for the party that best suits their ideas and interests or who they consider can do the most good for their country.

As we can see in the examples that we have just explained in reference to the concept of rational ignorance, although it seems paradoxical, all of them have been some rational decisions, since the person has weighed the costs-benefits and has opted for the decision that he considers most optimal and beneficial at the time of take her; despite the fact that in the long run, if he had invested more effort, he might have chosen another decision that would have provided him with more benefits.

Intolerance to uncertainty would also play an important role here, since in all these cases it has been preferred to choose based on resources or knowledge that you already have regarding the decision to be made, instead of gathering more information in order to weigh what would be the best decision to make. I could drink.

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Positive and negative aspects of rational ignorance to make decisions

Using rational ignorance is a point of reference when making decisions that has its benefits in certain situations. situations, while in others it could be rather detrimental or, at least, not as beneficial as having invested a effort in choose the most expensive way.

For example, in the case of choosing which sports shoes to buy in a sports store, it might be a good starting point reference choose the shoes of a brand that you already know because you have had other pairs of the same one that have been comfortable and durable; instead of analyzing various factors of various brands, spending time that he considers very valuable that could use in doing other activities that it considers more important to be analyzing different brands sports.

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

The same as in the previous case occurs when choosing the food to buy. And it is that making a decision from rational ignorance, although in the short term it may seem advantageous in terms of saving time and/or money, in the long term could be harmful in the sense that it would be more beneficial for your health to choose healthier foods, and for this, you should look at other factors, such as the ingredients that different products contain, instead of being based only on one ingredient such as sugar or simply on the price.