What Is Ignorance

Ignorance matter
ignorance can be positive. It can aid discovery and experimentation and shield us from
distress. It can also enable new knowledge and creativity,
Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies Edited by Matthias Gross and

Linsey McGoey
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Ignorance is Not an Excuse Ignorance is not bliss; it is merely a dose of anaesthetic which
wears off in time. Being ignorant does not mean being happy, ignorance is lack of
knowledge. Ignorance is not bliss, because ignorance causes conflicts between people,
makes chances become a big part of life, and makes fallacies into truths.
If you are in a community of people that only see the good things in their eyes, you don't want to
ruin everyone's good time, so you follow their way of living. Sooner or later, ignorant people will see
reality, and cry for what they have missed all their life. Ignorance is what makes manipulation
possible. It is impossible to manipulate (and very difficult to deceive) an educated person or people.
We often react to opinions we disagree with defensively, viewing them as threats to our
identity. We also do the same with facts: When confronted with facts we disagree with,
we often do not change our perceptions. Past research suggested the possibility that
fact-checking could lead to a “backfire effect,” causing people to double down and
become even more stubborn in their beliefs. Facebook discovered, for instance, that
warning users that an article was false caused people to share that article even more.
In other words, while you can get people to understand the facts, the facts don’t always
matter. NYU psychology professor Jay Van Bavel proposes that making people feel
more secure in their individual identity may make people more open to accepting
information they would otherwise reject. A central challenge to effectively communicating
scientific consensus is that people often reject information counter to their prior beliefs.
People who believe that human-induced climate change is a hoax, for instance, may
dismiss scientific consensus messages that human activity is a primary cause of climate
change. We argue that such people can be persuaded, however. We hypothesize that
validating an individual’s belief about the existence of conspiracies makes him or her
more likely to accept contrary scientific consensus information. We present experimental
evidence that such validation leads individuals who previously believed human-induced
climate change is a hoax to become more believing in human-induced climate change
following exposure to scientific consensus information. validating people’s beliefs in
conspiracy theories can make them more willing to accept information that contradicts
those theories.
What Is Education?
We don’t know how much electricity our appliances consume. We don’t worry about how
“cookies” buried in our internet services transmit information about us. And we don’t
think about the cumulative impact of the billions of daily transactions we take for granted.
We have to slow down, to increase awareness of the costs and implications of our
seamless convenience. Two years ago, Jared Lanier, the digital Media pioneer, similarly
warned us about this in his book, You Are Not A Gadget. He urged us to learn how to
program our computers, warning: “program or be programmed.” If and when you can
directly and most immediately witness what’s happening in the world, it becomes more
difficult for others to manipulate you.
We can’t all see climate change in action directly, but we can seek out documentary
evidence, eyewitness accounts, and so on that will show us what’s happening. We can
turn off the TV and get out in the world to see as much as we can for ourselves.
Critical thinking is almost a lost art and eventually, education will realize it must recapture teaching
this essential element in our society.
Ignorance and manipulation

Ignorance allows people to be manipulated by questionable authority
Ignorance has been demonstrated, in many cases, a valuable resource in the manipulation of people. It allows a
leader to persuade not so bright people to do what they want and how they want it done. A simple way to do this
is by keeping the population uneducated and ignorant so they will follow all orders that somewhat make sense to
them but do not for an average college graduate.
Generally speaking, lack of knowledge implies uncertainty in judgments and a risk that the decision
made is wrong
most people have given little notice to the candidates’ specific policy proposals. a large segment of
voters knows very little about today’s policy debates or even the basic workings of American
government
one good example of the extent of public ignorance is that only about 34% of Americans can even
name the three branches of the federal government: executive, legislative, and judicial
If voters are poorly informed about government policy, they will often make poor decisions. They
often support counterproductive or contradictory policies.
In 1855, Connecticut introduced the first literacy test for American voters. Although a New York
Democrat protested, in 1868, that “if a man is ignorant, he needs the ballot for his protection all the
more,” in the next half century the tests spread to almost all parts of the country.
Ignorance allows people to be manipulated by questionable authority. Unfortunately, voter

ignorance does seem to have a shape. The political scientist Scott Althaus has calculated that a voter
with more knowledge of politics will, on balance, be less eager to go to war, less punitive about
crime, more tolerant on social issues, less accepting of government control of the economy, and
more willing to accept taxes in order to reduce the federal deficit.
The economist Joseph Schumpeter didn’t think democracy could even function if voters paid too
much attention to what their representatives did between elections. “Electorates normally do not
control their political leaders in any way except by refusing to reelect them,” he wrote, in
“Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy” (1942).
On the other hand we do have good reason to be concerned about political ignorance. When we vote
for people who will occupy positions of political power, they do not just rule over those who voted for
them, they rule over the entire society. So we have a responsibility to be at least reasonably informed.
Over the past several decades, more than 60 percent of the members of Congress who have been
implicated in a corruption scandal have been reelected.
Surveys conducted every two years by the National Science Foundation consistently demonstrate
that slightly more than half of Americans reject the settled science concerning human evolution.
They are not unaware that virtually all credible scientists accept the overwhelming evidence that we
evolved from earlier species. They simply choose not to accept that consensus because it doesn’t
comport with their deeply held beliefs. Many also embrace the absurd notion that the earth is only
six thousand years old.

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Ignorance matter

Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies Edited by Matthias Gross and

Ignorance and manipulation

Ignorance allows people to be manipulated by questionable authority. Unfortunately, voter

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