I’m in a Hurry, I Don't Want to Know! Strategic Ignorance Under Time Pressure
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
Authors
Information avoidance is common when privately beneficial choices have uncertain and potentially adverse effects on others. A dominant theory holds that such “strategic ignorance” allows decision makers to circumvent inner moral conflict while acting self-servingly. In extension of this theory, we hypothesize that time pressure elevates the prevalence of strategic ignorance. We conduct a laboratory experiment with resolvable payoff uncertainty to test this hypothesis. We find that time pressure indeed significantly increases the incidence of information avoidance. As a result, self-serving choices are more common than in a baseline without time pressure. We empirically explore several potential interpretations of this main finding. First, in a control condition, in which payoffs are fully transparent, time pressure has no direct effect on self-serving behavior. This speaks against a general tendency to act more self-servingly or fairly under time pressure. Second, a follow-up study shows that information avoidance under time pressure is attributable to conflict avoidance, rather than providing decision makers with a convenient excuse for not becoming informed.
Originalsprache | Englisch |
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Zeitschrift | Journal of Experimental Psychology: General |
Jahrgang | 151 |
Ausgabenummer | 11 |
Seiten (von - bis) | 2833-2845 |
Anzahl der Seiten | 13 |
ISSN | 0096-3445 |
DOIs | |
Publikationsstatus | Erschienen - 23.06.2022 |
Extern publiziert | Ja |
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