Testing for COVID-19: Willful Ignorance or Selfless Behavior?

Willful Ignorance in a World of Biased Misinformation

Suppose individuals face a claim of uncertain validity and can only obtain more information from sources known to sometimes report biased misinformation for or against the claim. In such an environment, it is optimal for Bayesian expected utility maximizers to select the source biased toward their current behavior even if they know that source more frequently reports misinformation than an oppo...

Does Willful Ignorance Deflect Punishment? – An Experimental Study

This paper studies whether people can avoid punishment by remaining willfully ignorant about possible negative consequences of their actions for others. We employ a laboratory experiment, using modified dictator games in which a dictator can remain willfully ignorant about the payoff consequences of his decision for a receiver. A third party can punish the dictator after observing the dictator’...

Antibodies testing, Immunity and immunity passport in Covid-19

The global outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has affected most countries in the world. Our knowledge of diagnostic tests for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is evolving, and it is important to have a clear understanding of the nature of the tests and the interpretation of their findings. In this paper, the purpose is to interpret the results of two typ...

1 Equal Culpability and the Scope of the Willful Ignorance Doctrine

Selfish or selfless? On the signal value of emotion in altruistic behavior.

Theories that reject the existence of altruism presume that emotional benefits serve as ulterior motives for doing good deeds. These theories argue that even in the absence of material and reputational benefits, individuals reap utility from the feelings associated with doing good. In response to this normative view of altruism, this article examines the descriptive question of whether laypeopl...