The virtues of ignorance.
Although ignorance and uncertainty are usually unwelcome feelings, they have unintuitive advantages for both human and non-human animals, which we review here. We begin with the perils of too much information: expertise and knowledge can come with illusions (and delusions) of knowing. We then describe how withholding information can counteract these perils: providing people with less information enables them to judge more precisely what they know and do not know, which in turn enhances long-term memory. Data are presented from a new experiment that illustrates how knowing what we do not know can result in helpful choices and enhanced learning. We conclude by showing that ignorance can be a virtue, as long as it is recognized and rectified.
Son
Lisa K
LK
Barnard College, Department of Psychology, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, United States. lson@barnard.edu
Kornell
Nate
N
D000818:Animals; D001364:Awareness; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D000882:Haplorhini; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D007858:Learning; D008568:Memory