Is ignorance willful?

Asked by: Celia Smith  |  Last update: April 15, 2025
Score: 4.8/5 (54 votes)

Ignorance is a matter of choice. Willful ignorance (as a noun in our Federal Acquisition parlance and the law) is a decision made in bad faith to avoid becoming informed about something and making undesirable decisions that such information might prompt.

Are people willfully ignorant?

We discovered that willful ignorance is common and harmful, with 40 percent of people choosing “not to know” the consequences of their actions to free themselves of guilt while maximizing their own gains.

Can ignorance be intentional?

Deliberate ignorance can help to control the potentially detrimental effects of this kind of knowledge (see Turnwald et al., 2019). It can also be used to preserve a positive self-image and to dodge difficult personal truths.

What is an example of willfully ignorant?

The paradigmatic example is that of a person at an airport who is asked by a stranger to take a suitcase filled with drugs. If the person does not know the contents of the suitcase but agrees to take it without checking the contents, that person is said to be willfully ignorant but criminally liable.

Is stupidity willful ignorance?

Stupidity is the inability to correct behavior despite repeated similar experiences. Willful ignorance is intentional stupidity—someone who is capable of adjusting their behavior from experience, but chooses not to on purpose.

George Carlin "Americans will remain willfully ignorant"

35 related questions found

Can ignorance be willful?

Willful ignorance is sometimes called willful blindness, contrived ignorance, conscious avoidance, intentional ignorance, or Nelsonian knowledge.

What are the three types of ignorance?

Ignorance can appear in three different types: factual ignorance (absence of knowledge of some fact), object ignorance (unacquaintance with some object), and technical ignorance (absence of knowledge of how to do something).

What do you call someone who is willfully ignorant?

apprenticed, benighted, birdbrained, blind to, cretinous, dense, green, imbecilic, in the dark, inexperienced, insensible, mindless, misinformed, moronic, nescient, shallow, thick, unconscious, unconversant, uncultivated, uncultured, unenlightened, uninitiated, unintellectual, unknowledgeable, unlearned, unlettered, ...

What does the Bible say about willful ignorance?

Romans 5:14

The offense committed in ignorance or in willful ignorance is just as abominable as one done with knowledge.

What causes willful ignorance?

The researchers hypothesized that one reason for willful ignorance might be that some people behave altruistically because they want to maintain a positive self-image of being an altruistic person. In those cases, willful ignorance can allow them to maintain that self-image without having to act in an altruistic way.

Where in the Bible does it say they are willingly ignorant?

2 Peter 3:5 In-Context

5 For of this they are willfully ignorant: that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, 6 whereby the world as it then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

What is a famous quote about ignorance?

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. “There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”

What psychology says about ignorance?

Ignorance represents a situation in which some potential outcomes are not even identified. Often they are both unknown and unknowable (Gomory, 1995; Zeckhauser, 2006). On a con- tinuum that begins with risk and progresses through uncertainty, ignorance is the third, final, and most extreme state in the sequence.

Why ignorance is a sin?

Now it is clear that anyone who neglects to have or to do what he is obligated to have or to do sins by a sin of omission. Hence, ignorance of those things that one is obligated to know is a sin because of one's negligence. However, a man is not held to be negligent if he does not know what he is unable to know.

How to deal with willful ignorance?

Seek new experiences, read widely, and ask questions to deepen your understanding of the world. Be open to change: Be willing to change your mind when presented with new information or evidence. This can be difficult, but it is an important part of overcoming willful ignorance and growing as a person.

How do you call someone ignorant in a smart way?

  1. unaware.
  2. oblivious.
  3. uninformed.
  4. clueless.
  5. unmindful.
  6. unconscious.
  7. unknowing.
  8. in the dark.

What is a word for false ignorance?

But if you are looking for an adjective rather than a verb, you could say the person is disingenous -- in the sense of falsely or hypocritically ingenuous.

What is the difference between ignorance and willful ignorance?

The term uninformed is often used for someone with little or no knowledge. It's more polite than being called ignorant. The term willfully ignorant refers to those who lack information or facts because they refuse to acknowledge them. Ignorance is a matter of choice.

What is the root of ignorance?

Ignorant shares a root with the word ignore, one of those etymological connections which appear obvious once they are pointed out, yet remained overlooked by most. Both words come from the Latin ignorare (“to ignore, be ignorant of”).

What removes ignorance?

Ignorance is compared to darkness and darkness (say, in a room) is removed only when a lamp is lit and not by other means such as sweeping with a broom. Our ignorance too can be removed only by the light of awareness of truth and not by any other means.

What are the three poisons of ignorance?

The basic causes of suffering are known as the Three Poisons close Three PoisonsThe main causes of suffering: greed, hatred and ignorance.: greed, ignorance and hatred. These are often represented as a rooster (greed), a pig (ignorance) and a snake (hatred).

What is willful ignorance called?

Willful blindness, also known as conscious avoidance, is a judicially-made doctrine that expands the definition of knowledge to include closing one's eyes to the high probability a fact exists.

Why are some people willfully ignorant?

If a person doesn't know the consequences of their actions, the internal logic goes, then they still can consider themselves a morally upstanding individual even if they decide to act selfishly. Willful ignorance serves to protect their self-image.

Is ignorance a form of ignore?

1 Answer. While both ignore and ignorant have similar etymologies, their meaning has diverged throughout their development. While 'ignore' refers to not paying attention to something, 'ignorance' refers to lack of knowledge of something.