ORCID
- Jan K. Woike: 0000-0002-6816-121X
Abstract
People sometimes choose to remain ignorant, even when information comes at low marginal costs and promises high utility. To investigate whether older adults enlist deliberate ignorance more than younger adults, potentially as an emotion-regulation tool, we presented a representative sample of 1,910 residents of Germany with 13 scenarios in which knowledge could result in substantial gains or losses. The strongest correlate of deliberate ignorance was indeed age. Openness to experience was negatively correlated with deliberate ignorance; risk preference did not and neuroticism did not consistently predict it. Findings suggest a possible positivity effect in the decision to access new but ambiguous information
DOI Link
Publication Date
2021-01-01
Publication Title
Psychology and Aging
Volume
36
Issue
4
ISSN
0882-7974
Acceptance Date
2021-06-01
Deposit Date
2021-09-08
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
First Page
407
Last Page
414
Recommended Citation
Hertwig, R., Woike, J., & Schupp, J. (2021) 'Age differences in deliberate ignorance.', Psychology and Aging, 36(4), pp. 407-414. Available at: 10.1037/pag0000603
