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I Don't Want to Hear About it: Rational Ignorance among Duty-Oriented Consumers

Link to article:

[DOI]

Authors:

Nyborg, K.

Year:

2011

Reference:

Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

vol 79, 263-274

Summary

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 the initial belief about the social value of contributions is too low to merit a moral responsibility to contribute, duty-oriented consumers are willing to pay to avoid information. Information campaigns can make such consumers contribute by providing them with unwanted information.

JEL:

D11; D62; D64; D89; H41; Q21

Keywords:

Voluntary contributions; Public goods; Responsibility; Altruism; Information campaigns; Cognitive dissonance

Project:

Oppdragsgiver: Norges forskningsråd, Miljø2015
Oppdragsgivers prosjektnr.: 183593
Frisch prosjekt: 3171 - SAMFUNN: Norms, green agents and environmental policy