Rational ignorance

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Topic: Rational ignorance

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	Rational ignorance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Ignorance about an issue is said to be "rational" when the cost of educating oneself about the issue sufficiently to make an informed decision can outweigh any potential benefit one could reasonably expect to gain from that decision, and so it would be irrational to waste time doing so.
		Rational ignorance is a term most often found in economics, particularly public choice theory, but also used in other disciplines which study rationality and choice, including philosophy (epistemology) and game theory.
		This has consequences for the quality of decisions made by large numbers of people, such as general elections, where the probability of any one vote changing the outcome is very small.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Rational_ignorance (236 words)

	Rational choice theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Rational choice theory is a way of looking at deliberations between a number of potential courses of action, in which "rationality" of one form or another is used either to decide which course of action would be the best to take, or to predict which course of action actually will be taken.
		Rationality can also mean that the decision maker always chooses the most preferred option, as in the Utility Maximization Problem.
		Some people have tried to create models of bounded rationality, which try to be more psychologically plausible without giving up completely on the idea that some kind of reason underlies decision-making processes.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Rational_choice_theory (450 words)

	The Diminishing Returns of Rational Ignorance
		"Rational ignorance" is the deliberate decision to remain uninformed about something because the perceived cost of the additional intelligence, in terms of both effort and expense, is greater than the expected return on the knowledge gained.
		In life, rational ignorance is the natural default when we believe we have reached the point of diminishing returns as it relates to the value of acquiring additional insight.
		The concept of rational ignorance, while popping up on a daily basis for most of us, is detrimental to the banking industry, especially as it relates to the impact of cross-selling activity on customer profitability.
	www.sas.com /news/feature/fsi/sep04asee.html (865 words)

	Rational Ignorance
		The phenomenon of rational ignorance is not confined to political affairs.
		The hypothesis of the rationally ignorant voter suggests that people will be better informed about the choices they make in the marketplace than about those they make in the voting booth.
		Keep the rationally ignorant voter in mind when interpreting polls that ask citizens their opinions about complex public issues.
	ingrimayne.saintjoe.edu /econ/LogicOfChoice/RatIgnorance.html (881 words)

	Why People Are Irrational about Politics
		The theory of Rational Ignorance holds that people often choose—rationally—to remain ignorant because the costs of collecting information are greater than the expected value of the information.
		Highly intelligent people can think of rationalizations for their beliefs in situations in which the less intelligent would be forced to give up and concede error, and highly educated people have larger stores of information from which to selectively search for information supporting a desired belief.
		Epistemic rationality consists, roughly, in forming beliefs in truth-conducive ways—accepting beliefs that are well-supported by evidence, avoiding logical fallacies, avoiding contradictions, revising one’s beliefs in the light of new evidence against them, and so on.
	home.sprynet.com /~owl1/irrationality.htm (6413 words)

	ratirnew.doc
		Downs (1957) first introduced the theory of rational ignorance to explain why voters know so little about seemingly important issues: when the expected benefits of information are small relative to the costs (as they almost always will be in an election), people buy little information.
		Rational Ignorance: A Critique Even though Downs’ An Economic Theory of Democracy preceded Muth’s analysis of rational expectations, it carefully distinguished random error due to information costs from irrationality.
		Rational Irrationality: Applications This section offers examples where systematically biased beliefs are common and the private costs of error are low.
	www.gmu.edu /departments/economics/bcaplan/ratirnew.doc (4398 words)

	Will Wilkinson / The Fly Bottle: I'm worried that Tony Adragna
		Rational ignorance, in the sense Volokh was talking about, has to do with the opportunity costs of thinking.
		At lunch, Volokh was using the notion to explain why citizens might be rational to consider existing policies to be well-considered, and thus biased to accept new policies that extend the principles of present policies.
		It's cognitively economical to defer to experts, and legislators seem (to the folk) to be experts, so the fact that something is a law creates a rational presumption in its favor, which may then extend to new but similar policies.
	willwilkinson.net /flybottle/archives/2001/11/im_worried_that.html (432 words)

	The Joy of Being a Rational Ignoramus by David Bardallis
		This exchange put me in mind of the economic concept of "rational ignorance." Simply stated, this concept tells us that an individual’s decision to become informed about something is influenced by the cost – measured in terms of time and effort, not just dollars – of becoming informed.
		Rational ignorance lies at the heart of the government racket.
		Rational ignorance explains why various special interests wield so much influence over government officials.
	www.lewrockwell.com /orig/bardallis8.html (691 words)

	SSRN-What Do Patents Purchase? In Search of Optimal Ignorance in the Patent Office by Shubha Ghosh, Jay Kesan
		Thus, when it comes to ignorance in the patent system, the key question is not the rational ignorance of the agency; rather, it is the agency's optimal ignorance.
		In addition, an optimal ignorance approach may suggest why it is more likely that the PTO is subjected to bounded rationality, rather than rational ignorance.
		As Professor Lemley puts it, "The basic idea of rational ignorance is that any person will spend only a certain amount of time or money to obtain a piece of information.
	papers.ssrn.com /sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=410545 (814 words)

	Alligator Story
		Economists use the term rational ignorance to describe cases in which the cost of acquiring knowledge exceeds the value of that knowledge.
		Since the odds of determining the outcome of an election are small, and the details of SG are both arcane and unpleasant, many students rationally choose to ignore the issues and the elections.
		If the time and effort it takes that average voter to become informed about any one policy is worth $5, then it is rational for him to remain ignorant about that policy, even if he heads a family of four.
	www.alligator.org /edit/issues/97-fall/971007/c02watso.htm (525 words)

	Untitled Document
		Economists call this phenomenon "rational ignorance." (Ignorance does not mean stupidity, it merely means the absence of information.) Voters rationally choose not to collect the relevant information.
		Unfortunately, I cannot think of a comparably easy solution to the problem of rational ignorance.
		So it is perfectly rational (in the economists' sense) for individuals who have decided to vote to not bother to cast informed votes.
	www.sbe.csuhayward.edu /~sbesc/99augcol.html (1048 words)

	FIBs, RIVs, and Rational Ignorance - by Joseph L. Bast - The Heartland Institute
		FIBs, RIVs, and Rational Ignorance - by Joseph L. Bast - The Heartland Institute
		The potential beneficiaries have a financial incentive to overcome their rational ignorance and lobby for the program.
		Politics also promotes rational ignorance by being time consuming and expensive for the average citizen.
	www.heartland.org /Article.cfm?artId=14704 (1301 words)

	14_Public_Choice_Key.doc
		AM17\ C \\ Rational Ignorance \2\\ Voters tend to pursue information about political candidates up to the point where the: (a) welfare of society is likely to be maximized.
		AM17\ B \\ Rational Ignorance \3\\ The personal losses, because of rational ignorance, tend to be lowest when an individual makes a decision about: (a) buying an item that is purchased frequently.
		AM17\ C \\ Rational Ignorance \2\\ Voters tend to be rationally ignorant because they: (a) are affected very little by government policies.
	unc.edu /depts/econ/byrns_web/HET/HET_TB_Key/14_Public_Choice_Key.doc (6198 words)

	Is Voter Ignorance Rational?
		While rational ignorance can generate perverse outcomes, as politicians and rent-seekers learn to manipulate it to serve their own ends, there's a reason why it's called rational -- and why expecting human nature to change is quite the reverse of rational.
		They find others in whom they trust, perhaps because of a shared set of deeply held beliefs or a track record of performance, and defer to their judgment, be it about politics, religion, buying a car, or fertilizing the lawn (about which I am irrationally ignorant, apparently).
		By all means, we should seek to expand the ranks of active, engaged citizens who are well-informed about the economic, fiscal, and social issues at the center of the political debate.
	www.freerepublic.com /focus/f-news/1111811/posts (1078 words)

	Townhall.com :: Columns :: RATIONAL IGNORANCE by Walter E. Williams - Jul 25, 2001
		Politicians exploit rational ignorance by conferring large benefits on certain constituents whose costs are widely dispersed and borne by the general population.
		That's what my colleagues at George Mason University's Economics Department predict: Rational ignorance pays.
		Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D., is the founder and chief visionary of Your Coach for the Culture Wars, a business devoted to supporting organizations that want to preserve their core values and achieve prosperity by taking a stand in the Culture Wars.
	www.townhall.com /columnists/walterwilliams/ww20010725.shtml (797 words)

	SSRN-Rational Ignorance at the Patent Office by Mark Lemley
		Lemley, Mark A., "Rational Ignorance at the Patent Office" (February 2001).
		In economic terms, the patent office is "rationally ignorant" of the objective validity of the patents it issues.
		Because of this, society would be better off spending its resources in a more searching judicial inquiry into validity in those few cases in which it matters than paying for a more protracted examination of all patents ex ante.
	papers.ssrn.com /sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=261400 (276 words)

	Piercing the Wall of Rational Ignorance
		The barrier against greater awareness is the “wall of rational ignorance.” Company employees make conscious decisions not to engage in Knowledge Center service offerings because of two primary reasons: (1) they are too busy, and (2) they do not see the ROI.
		In general, there is consensus among Knowledge Center team members and leadership that our efforts to date are moving us towards piercing the “wall of rationale ignorance,” positioning the Knowledge Center more as a strategic partner, and meeting our objectives relative to our key audiences.
		The Knowledge Center continues to do all previous outreach activities, and is focusing on building a consultative approach for specific areas, as well as exploring the use of advisory panels, and working with the company’s communications staff.
	www.sla.org /Documents/conf/ny/PiercingtheWall.htm (1388 words)

	Patently-O: Patent Law Blog: More on Rational Ignorance at the Patent Office
		We contend that such an argument ignores (in neither a rational nor an optimal way) the benefits of a patent system.
		He opts for the latter because so few patents are actually litigated, and therefore the benefits from reduced litigation are not justified by the increased costs in administrative review.
		It is far from clear that more extensive judicial review is more effective than some restructuring of the USPTO in terms of more careful scrutiny or more rigorous assessment and accumulation of the prior art.
	patentlaw.typepad.com /patent/2004/08/more_on_rationa.html (564 words)

	Rational Ignorance at the Patent Office
		Rational Ignorance at the Patent Office by Mark Lemely, UC Berkeley School of Law.
		Lemley, Mark (2001) "Rational Ignorance at the Patent Office ", The Berkeley Law & Economics Working Papers: Vol.
		Printing Tip: Select the option to 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog to ensure the article prints as it appears on screen.
	www.bepress.com /blewp/default/vol2000/iss2/art5 (72 words)

	Dynamist Blog: RATIONAL IGNORANCE & THE PROGRESSIVE PROCESS
		For continuing coverage of rational ignorance, read The Volokh Conspiracy.
		Kausfile reports that Arianna Huffington is planning to run for California governor.
		But somebody will eventually win, that person will have to be governor, and a screwed-up state government will very likely get even more screwed up.
	www.dynamist.com /weblog/archives/000369.html (132 words)

	Rational Ignorance?
		Yes, there's some worrisome shit going on but ignorance of the charter ain't it.
		I.E. politicians, bureaucrats, "anti-poverty activists", civil servants, organized labour and welfare recipients including individuals, corporations and others such as ACTRA, an organization involved in lobbying the government for sleazy laws and quotas designed to sucker Canadians into lining the pockets of ACTRA members.
		You dream of independence, pride of accomplishment, an annual vacation and a comfortable retirement.
	www.w3taxi.com /emancipation/rational.shtml (1344 words)

	Mark A. R. Kleiman: RATIONAL IGNORANCE AND SIGNALING
		RATIONAL IGNORANCE AND SIGNALING THEORY MEET POLITICAL SURVIVAL:
		I think Eugene Volokh is right that Oregon's proposed law that would define blocking traffic for political purposes as "terrorism" and subject it to life imprisonment won't pass, in part because the "right-to-life" crowd won't let it.
		Posted by kleiman at March 27, 2003 09:07 AM
	www.samefacts.com /archives/000404.html (631 words)

	Truck and Barter: Rational Ignorance
		The problem lies in the fact that students have the view that geometry and calculus takes a lot work, yet, they don't see the rewards that competence in the math and science fields gives, hence, rational ignorance.
		If I were confronted with such aggresive ignorance from a teenager, here is what I would say (after smacking the S*** out of him):
		Besides the fact that you have to learn geometry BECAUSE WE TELL YOU TO, your puny brain is a muscle.
	www.truckandbarter.com /mt/archives/000165.html (847 words)

	Rawls on Justice
		We are all self-interested rational persons and we stand behind "the Veil of Ignorance." To say that we are self-interested rational persons is to say that we are motivated to select, in an informed and enlightened way, whatever seems advantageous for ourselves.
		Self-interested rational persons behind the Veil of Ignorance are given the task of choosing the principles that shall govern actual world.
		A self-interested rational person behind the Veil of Ignorance would not want to belong to a race or gender or sexual orientation that turns out to be discriminated-against.
	www.wku.edu /~jan.garrett/ethics/johnrawl.htm (1299 words)

	Rational ignorance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Ignorance about an issue is said to be "rational" when the cost of educating oneself about the issue sufficiently to make an informed decision can outweigh any potential benefit one could reasonably expect to gain from that decision, and so it would be irrational to waste time doing so.
		Rational ignorance is a term most often found in economics, particularly public choice theory, but also used in other disciplines which study rationality and choice, including philosophy (epistemology) and game theory.
		Marketers can take advantage of rational ignorance by increasing the complexity of a decision.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Rational_ignorance (492 words)

	The Veil of Ignorance
		Behind such a veil of ignorance all individuals are simply specified as rational, free, and morally equal beings.
		I think that increasingly the veil of ignorance is being lifted, and special interest groups are able to rapidly assess legislative impact and to detour or shape the legislation for their benefit.
		Thus, the key is that people make decisions based on what is good for their community as a whole, and without regard to their own self-interest (since they operate behind a veil of ignorance and don't know enough about what would benefit them).
	radio.weblogs.com /0104634/stories/2002/07/18/theVeilOfIgnorance.html (419 words)

	ratirnew.doc
		Downs (1957) first introduced the theory of rational ignorance to explain why voters know so little about seemingly important issues: when the expected benefits of information are small relative to the costs (as they almost always will be in an election), people buy little information.
		Material wealth is greatest when the agent has rational expectations (where the budget line crosses the x-axis), but agents with a taste for irrationality are likely to trade off some material wealth in exchange for more satisfying beliefs.
		According to the theory of rational irrationality, being irrational - in the sense of deviating from rational expectations - is a good like any other; the lower the private cost, the more agents buy.
	www.gmu.edu /departments/economics/bcaplan/ratirnew.doc (4398 words)

	Summit Ministries: Resources: Essays
		Rationality: “Rationality is man’s basic virtue, the source of all his other virtues.
		Evil: “[T]hat which is proper to the life of a rational being is the good; that which negates, opposes or destroys it is the evil” (25).
		The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
	www.summit.org /resource/essay/show_essay.php?essay_id=143 (8044 words)

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