This week was
nothing short of crazy. Between the normal meetings and classes, and additional
tests and papers, there was barely time to breathe or eat. One assignment that
consumed my time was a 12 page paper defining religion, using theorists such
as Freud (a
fun weekend read). If I had all the time in the world, it would be great to
become an expert on all the different theorists for this assignment. However,
Johnson discusses the idea of Rational Ignorance. In this theory, there is an
optimal amount of knowledge, and an optimal amount of ignorance.
My marginal benefit
of learning about authors starts high. I need to know something to write a 12
page paper, need to have some baseline of knowledge in order to not get a zero.
But at some point, I have a basic understanding but the lower level details are
confusing. The marginal benefit of learning the details and distinctions
between the theorists declines- maybe a few points on the paper or
the chance to make a profound argument but mostly just isn't practical after a
certain point. Additionally, the marginal cost is increasing. As the public
choice exam crept closer and closer, and my stress level rose, the opportunity
cost of my time studying the theorists continued to rise. Therefore, it is rational
for me to be somewhat ignorant about these religious theorists. Using rational
ignorance to justify myself, I embellished some of my points about Freud, and
studied for Public Choice.
1 comment:
Your post made me think of how education can be viewed as a prisoner’s dilemma through the lens of rational ignorance. When you described the declining marginal benefit of learning more details about each theorist, I thought about how people with even higher opportunity costs than us students have even less incentive to educate themselves on every matter and minutiae. The implications of the prisoner’s dilemma are potentially severe for society. It would be better off if we all “cooperated” and educated ourselves for the betterment of society, however, individual marginal costs outweighing marginal benefits will ensure that the entire population is uneducated or ignorant on the distinctions between different great thinkers – and thus society is worse off.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
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