Strategic Self-Ignorance
Linda Thunstrom,
Jonas Nordström,
Jason Shogren,
Mariah Tanner Ehmke and
Klaas van 't Veld ()
No 2013:17, Working Papers from Lund University, Department of Economics
Abstract:
We examine strategic self-ignorance—the use of ignorance as an excuse to over-indulge in pleasurable activities that may be harmful to one’s future self. Our model shows that guilt aversion provides a behavioral rationale for present-biased agents to avoid information about negative future impacts of such activities. We then confront our model with data from an experiment using prepared, restaurant-style meals—a good that is transparent in immediate pleasure (taste) but non-transparent in future harm (calories). Our results support the notion that strategic self-ignorance matters: nearly three of five subjects (58 percent) chose to ignore free information on calorie content, leading at-risk subjects to consume significantly more calories. We also find evidence consistent with our model on the determinants of strategic self-ignorance.
Keywords: Experiment; Information; Ignorance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 D81 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2013-05-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)
Downloads: (external link)
http://project.nek.lu.se/publications/workpap/papers/WP13_17.pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:
Journal Article: Strategic self-ignorance (2016) 
Working Paper: Strategic Self-Ignorance (2012) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2013_017
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in Working Papers from Lund University, Department of Economics School of Economics and Management, Box 7080, S-22007 Lund, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Iker Arregui Alegria ().