“In our research, we discovered that people would choose to forego the powers that made Cassandra renowned in order to avoid the agony that knowing the future may inflict, avoid regret, and keep the pleasure of suspense that enjoyable occurrences provide,” Gigerenzer stated. [7 Things to Make You Happier]
Participants were asked if they would want to hear about ten hypothetical future occurrences ranging from serious to mundane. These included things like when they or their partner would die, what they would die off, whether they would get divorced, what they would get for Christmas, and the outcome of a soccer game they planned to watch.
The majority of participants answered they didn’t want to know the answer to practically every question. There was one exception: when asked if they wanted to know the sex of their unborn child, the majority of people replied yes.
People choose “deliberate ignorance” because they believe they will regret knowing the solution, according to the researchers. People can prevent bad feelings of regret that they expect will accompany learning about future undesirable events by opting not to know about them, according to the researchers. According to the researchers, people can also sustain positive sentiments of surprise associated with favorable situations.
People who choose “intentional ignorance” are more inclined to avoid risks and to get non mandatory insurance, such as life insurance, according to the researchers. Because both of these acts (avoiding risks and buying insurance) are motivated by a fear of regret, the findings support the theory that fear of regret also motivates willful ignorance, according to the researchers.
The researchers cautioned that they don’t know if the findings would apply to other life events not covered in the study or if the same findings would be seen in persons from other countries.
Nonetheless, the researchers concluded that their research “shows that willful ignorance occurs… [and] is a widespread state of mind when dealing with concerns such as death and divorce, as well as pleasant occasions.”
What do you think?