In a survey about finances and personal characteristics, in 32% of the scenarios presented, those who responded preferred not to know useful, although potentially unpleasant, information. Information that could guide treatment, renegotiation or route correction. By reducing the scope for relativizing the problem, receiving bad news anticipates consequences and frustrations that may still seem distant.
On health issues, this disposition seems to vary depending on the severity of the news and the clarity about what can be done after it. In a meta-analysis of 92 studies in 25 countries, avoidance was lowest for (24%) and highest for Huntington’s (40%) and (41%). This difference may indicate that the cost of knowing increases when the information seems less tractable or even less accompanied by a resolution plan.
In the financial market, investors monitor their portfolios less when they expect bad news. In one study, retirement account logins dropped 9.5% the day after market declines. The result, found by , reinforces the pattern known as the “ostrich effect”: of course, investors know that the loss does not decrease when they stop looking, but checking makes the feeling of loss more concrete and, therefore, contact with this information is postponed.
The cost of unpleasant information also increases when it concerns the person themselves. In an experiment on intelligence and appearance, participants who received negative signals agreed to give up money so as not to discover their position in relation to the other participants. The decision possibility varied between paying up to US$7 to know and receiving up to US$7 to accept the information. show that, faced with negative signals, participants attributed less weight to the evidence and demonstrated greater aversion to new information.
In , information is usually treated as a valuable resource, as it should lead to better decisions. But there are situations in which making it available is not enough. In an experiment with families served by H&R Block, an American tax preparation network, researchers tested ways to expand access to financial aid for college. Providing only eligibility estimates had no significant effect on form submission or enrollment. When the information was accompanied by direct assistance in completing and submitting the application, form submissions increased by 15.7 percentage points among dependent students, and college enrollment rose by 8.1 percentage points. The shows that the bottleneck was not just knowing about the opportunity, but taking the steps to take advantage of it.
Therefore, this mechanism needs to be taken into account when designing services that depend on adherence: debt renegotiation, preventive exams, social programs, job search, school monitoring and health goals. Notification and campaign help, but when the user has to go through countless bureaucracies without sufficient support, it doesn’t solve the problem. The mistake is in treating information as a point of arrival, when, for those who receive it, it is usually the beginning of a long journey to solve a problem.
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