TY  - GEN
EP  - 102
A1  - Balietti, Anca
A1  - Budjan, Angelika
A1  - Eymess, Tillmann
A1  - Soldà, Alice
UR  - https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/33841/
N2  - Information can trigger unpleasant emotions. As a result, individuals might be tempted to strategically 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 were later asked to recall it. Perceived control leads to a substantial improvement in information recall. We find that optimists react most to perceived control, both with a reduction in information avoidance and an increase in information recall. This latter result is supported by a US sample. A theoretical framework rationalizes our findings.
CY  - Heidelberg
AV  - public
T3  - Discussion Paper Series / University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics
Y1  - 2023/09//
TI  - Strategic Ignorance and Perceived Control
KW  - information avoidance; information recall; perceived control;
motivated cognition; air pollution
ID  - heidok33841
ER  -