TY  - GEN
UR  - https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/33733/
A1  - Balietti, Anca
A1  - Budjan, Angelika
A1  - Eymess, Tillmann
A1  - Soldà, Alice
EP  - 55
N2  - Information can trigger unpleasant emotions. As a result, individuals might be tempted to willfully ignore it. We experimentally investigate whether increasing perceived control can mitigate strategic ignorance. Participants from India were presented with a choice to receive information about the health risk associated with air pollution and later asked to recall it. We find that perceived control leads to a substantial improvement in information retention. Moreover, perceived control mostly benefits optimists, who show both a reduction in information avoidance and an increase in information retention. This latter result is confirmed with a US sample. A theoretical framework rationalizes these findings.
TI  - Strategic Ignorance and Perceived Control
Y1  - 2023/08//
T3  - Discussion Paper Series / University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics
AV  - public
CY  - Heidelberg
ID  - heidok33733
KW  - air pollution
KW  -  information avoidance
KW  -  information retention
KW  -  perceived control
KW  -  motivated cognition
ER  -