The Relevance of Relevance: A Conceptual Framework for Identifying Willful Ignorance

Willful ignorance refers to any behavior intended to prevent or delay the acquisition of available, relevant, and free information. Current research assumes that willful ignorance and information seeking are the opposite ends of a single continuum. However, this assumption fails to account for information relevance and we show how this may lead to an overestimation of the prevalence of willful ignorance as well as a misinterpretation of its behavioral effects. To address this, we propose a conceptual framework consisting of two dimensions: information acquisition and information relevance. The framework distinguishes willful ignorance from related constructs, such as rational inattention and omission. Based on this framework, we propose remedies for more accurate measurement of willful ignorance.