van der Weele, J.J. and Figueroa, C. (2026). Inconvenient Truths: A Note on Information Avoidance and the Price of Fairness European Economic Review, 181.

Previous literature has shown that people are often reluctant to learn whether individually profitable actions have negative consequences for others. In an experimental allocation decision, we vary the {\textquoteleft}inconvenience{\textquoteright} of becoming informed about the payoffs of another player by changing the costs and benefits of choosing the fair outcome. Lowering the cost of fairness turns out to have a multiplier effect, raising both altruistic choices of informed subjects and the fraction of subjects that chooses to become informed. Thus, in situations of uncertainty, subsidizing altruistic choices to decision makers is an effective tool for raising social welfare. By contrast, variations in the size of recipients{\textquoteright} potential benefit have a smaller and insignificant effect on ignorance and fair choices.