Willful ignorance
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==See also== | ==See also== | ||
*[[Cognitive dissonance]] | *[[Cognitive dissonance]] | ||
| + | *[[Confirmation bias]] | ||
*[[Ignorance]] | *[[Ignorance]] | ||
*[[Faith]] | *[[Faith]] | ||
Revision as of 17:57, 23 June 2011
| Not just a river in Egypt |
| A dirty dozen gems |
Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any evidence that appears to contradict one's preconceived notions. This differs from the standard definition of "ignorance" - which just means that one is unaware of something - in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone "ignorant" shouldn't really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter.
Depending on the nature and strength of an individual's pre-existing beliefs, willful ignorance can manifest itself in different ways. The practice can entail completely disregarding established facts, evidence and/or reasonable opinions if they fail to meet one's expectations. Often excuses will be made, stating that the source is unreliable, that the experiment was flawed or the opinion is too biased. More often than not this is simple circular reasoning; "I cannot agree with that source because it is untrustworthy because it disagrees with me".
In other cases, slightly more extreme cases, willful ignorance can involve outright refusal to read, hear or study in any way anything that does not conform to the person's worldview. This can even extend to outright censorship of the material from others.
Examples of willful ignorance
This is some suggested reading for wilful ignorance.
- Creationism - Often absolute denial of transitional fossils. Statements like "there are no transitional fossils" come as if they're facts from the mouths of creation scientists. Actual scientists, however, would beg to differ.
- Conservapædia - Well known for it, in fact.
- A Storehouse of Knowledge - As creationists, above.
- Expelled: Leader's Guide - Intentional misrepresentations of evolution throughout. They still insist on outright falsehoods such as "Darwinism caused the holocaust", refusing to consider the blatant facts that this is not only wrong, but would be irrelevant even if it were true.