I Don't Want to Hear About It: Rational Ignorance Among Duty-Oriented Consumers

University of Oslo, Department of Economics Memorandum No. 15/2008

26 Pages Posted: 14 Aug 2008

See all articles by Karine Nyborg

Karine Nyborg

University of Oslo - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: August 13, 2008

Abstract

Individuals with a preference for keeping moral obligations may dislike learning that voluntary contributions are socially valuable: Such information can trigger unpleasant feelings of cognitive dissonance. I show that if initial beliefs about the social value of contributions are sufficiently low, duty-oriented consumers are willing to pay to avoid information. Attitude campaigns can increase contributions from such consumers by providing them with unwanted information. Consequentialist warm glow types with low initial beliefs, however, will seek low-cost information on their own initiative; thus, campaigns will have less effects for such consumers.

Keywords: Voluntary contributions, responsibility, information campaigns

JEL Classification: D11, D62, D64, D89, H41, Q21

Suggested Citation

Nyborg, Karine, I Don't Want to Hear About It: Rational Ignorance Among Duty-Oriented Consumers (August 13, 2008). University of Oslo, Department of Economics Memorandum No. 15/2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1224923 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1224923

Karine Nyborg (Contact Author)

University of Oslo - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O.Box 1095 Blindern
Oslo, N-0317
Norway

HOME PAGE: http://folk.uio.no/karineny/

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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