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Information Avoidance and Covid-19: Self-Image Concerns, Inattention, and Ideology

We present the results of an experiment to investigate the determinants of ignoring costless information on measures to address Covid-19. Subjects could choose between two options that differed in their contribution to the Corona Fund of the Red Cross USA and in their own payoffs. Depending on the treatment, either the own-payoff consequences, the donations, both or none of these pieces of information were hidden, but revealable in two stages. Our experimental design permits to separate motivated reasons for remaining ignorant from non-motivated reasons, both of which are present in our data. Furthermore, we find evidence of both self-serving and pro-social information avoidance, which could contribute to explaining the polarization of voters' worldviews. Indeed, these behavioral patterns correlate with the subjects’ political attitudes: while voters of the Democratic Party are prone to avoid information on own-payoff consequences, Republican voters rather avoid information on donations.