# Everyone is willing to be comfortably ignorant. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 6, 2012, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-is-willing-to-be-comfortably-ignorant/621050 "2012-05-06T06:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-is-willing-to-be-comfortably-ignorant/621050/21 "2012-05-07T13:30:16Z")
> [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](#): > > But I occasionally hear people say something like “I just care about the truth” or “I won’t believe lies just to make myself feel better.” And what I’m saying, in this thread, is that that statement is _always not true_. The reason for this is that a person could, conceivably, devote all their living energy to refining their worldview until it was as accurate as it could be. But nobody does that. Then it seems the best conclusion to reach is that you have misunderstood what people mean when they make such declarations. > [@](#): > > Essentially, we do things that are not optimally efficient for understanding reality-at-large. How are you measuring efficiency? > [@](#): > > Given that we all trade understanding for enjoyment, it is simply no good to talk of “just caring about the truth” or anything like that. There may be specific times and reasons in which we do not want to be blissfully ignorant. But blissful ignorance is a staple of human mental life and both religious and non-religious people are participating in it _willfully_ all the time. Given that we all trade understanding for enjoyment, perhaps you overestimate what is realistically possible for people to achieve and use this overestimation to wrongfully interpret phrases like “I just care about the truth.” ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-is-willing-to-be-comfortably-ignorant/621050/22 "2012-05-10T00:41:41Z")
> [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](#): > > There may be specific times and reasons in which we do not want to be blissfully ignorant. But blissful ignorance is a staple of human mental life and both religious and non-religious people are participating in it _willfully_ all the time. Boy ain’t that the truth (see what I did there?) Most people don’t want THE truth. They want whatever truth they happen to believe in this week. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-is-willing-to-be-comfortably-ignorant/621050/23 "2012-05-10T05:02:15Z")
> [@PandaBear77](#): > > They want whatever truth they happen to believe in this week. I want whatever truth I happen to believe in this day. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-is-willing-to-be-comfortably-ignorant/621050/24 "2012-05-10T15:19:00Z")
The OP is not the only philosopher to notice the all too human tendency to be disinterested in learning things which don’t contribute to their well-being. In Economic theory this is known as [Rational Ignorance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_ignorance). And guess what, it’s pretty darn rational. Most of the things we do in life are pretty simple. Most decisions have either clearly understood dominant terms which can be evaluated and the subtler effects of the decision disregarded because they’re more easily mitigated if the choice causes issues with them. In our society we’re most familiar with this dominant term having a dollar figure attached to it. You may look at lots of cars when choosing what car to buy, but the primary factor in most decisions is cost. You can be ignorant of typical wiper blade life for that make and model, even though it will affect you at some point, because it really doesn’t matter in comparison to the major factor in the decision. So yes, everyone, including you, is willing to be comfortably ignorant about lots of things. And this is entirely rational and should need no justification. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-is-willing-to-be-comfortably-ignorant/621050/25 "2012-05-10T16:29:09Z")
There are lots of reasons we don’t spend all our time figuring out the truth. Our cognitive resources are limited. There are lots of things where the truth would be hard to find - even if we searched on-line, we might see lots of contradictory answers. If we invest a lot of energy in determining the truth, we will not have the energy to consider other truths, and the payback may not be so great. There are plenty of areas in which believing in a lie does not bite you. We’re programmed to not see the truth. Studies have shown that we think the incidence of events such as murder and suicide depend on the number of stories we see about them, not their actual rates. Most people believe there are more murders, which is not the case. Then we sometimes believe in contradictory truths. Getting to an accurate position causes all sorts of psychic churning. It might not be worth it for some people. The average Alabama ditchdigger won’t profit much from studying evolution and rejecting creationism, but he might get kicked out of his local church and suffer a lot more for reject their “truth.” It is more surprising that we spend as much time as we do on the truth. ---
**Author:** ![mac9891](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f4b2a3/32.png) [@mac9891](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac9891)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-is-willing-to-be-comfortably-ignorant/621050/26 "2012-05-11T03:43:46Z")
The short answer is yes, when people feel disconnect they tend not to care at all, people are not saints most only care about themselfs and the ones they love or feel close to and could give a damn about people they have no interactions with. The world would be better if people did care more but you can’t force them. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-is-willing-to-be-comfortably-ignorant/621050/27 "2012-05-11T07:26:56Z")
> [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](#): > > atheists think of religious beliefs as pleasing . . . Since when? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-is-willing-to-be-comfortably-ignorant/621050.md?page=1)