Willful Ignorance and Moral Behavior

Consumers’ willful ignorance about the consequences of their actions may impede moral behavior. We test this concern in a real-world context based on a laboratory experiment and field data. We find that willful ignorance about farming practices increases consumption of meat from intensive farming, both in the laboratory and at university canteens. Individuals who prefer to avoid costless evidence are particularly responsive to it, yet their behavioral response vanishes within two weeks. Both findings demonstrate how difficult it is for organizations and governments to address willful ignorance through information interventions.

This paper was accepted by Marie Claire Villeval, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

Funding: This work was funded by the Austrian Science Fund [Grant 10.55776/F63] and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [Grant CRC TR 224].

Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2025.01176.