Willful Ignorance in the Context of Atrocity Crimes and the Role of Information Provision on Attitudes and Moral Behavior

Participants are randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions that differ in whether and how they receive politically and morally relevant information. Depending on the condition, participants may receive information directly, make incentivized choices about whether to receive the information, or receive feedback about their prior knowledge before making these choices.

Participants are randomly assigned with equal probability to one of four groups. Group A serves as the control group and receives no additional information before the post-treatment outcomes are measured. Group B receives the correct answers (solutions) and brief explanations to a set of previously answered knowledge questions concerning Germany’s position and actions in relation to Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Participants in Groups C and D complete an incentivized willingness-to-pay task in which they make 11 choices between viewing the knowledge questions again and receiving the solutions. The monetary payoff associated with the two options varies across scenarios, allowing us to measure information avoidance and willingness to pay for information. After all choices have been made, one of the 11 scenarios is selected at random and the participant’s choice in that scenario is implemented.
Group D differs from Group C in that participants first receive feedback on the number of knowledge questions they answered correctly before completing the willingness-to-pay task. This allows us to examine how feedback about one’s own knowledge affects subsequent information demand. After the intervention, all groups complete the same set of outcome measures on attitudes and behavior.

2026-08-17

2026-08-30

The primary outcomes capture (i) participants' information preferences and (ii) their post-treatment attitudes and behavior. Information-preference outcomes include whether participants avoid information when receiving it is costless (AvoidAtZero), whether they avoid information even when receiving it is financially beneficial (CostlyAvoider), whether they are willing to forgo money to receive information (Seeker), and a continuous measure of willingness to pay for information. Post-treatment outcomes include respondents' assessments of Israel's conduct in Gaza and Germany's responsibility, support for policy measures by the German government, uncertainty as measured by “don't know” responses, protest intention, and incentivized charitable giving to the European Legal Support Center.

See pre-analysis plan.

See pre-analysis plan.

See pre-analysis plan.

We conduct an online survey experiment with adults in Germany. Participants are randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions that vary whether and how they receive politically and morally relevant information and whether they receive feedback about their prior knowledge. Some participants also make incentivized choices concerning whether they wish to receive information. We study information-seeking and information-avoidance behavior and subsequently measure attitudes and behavior.

Individual-level computerized randomization within the online survey. Participants are assigned to one of four experimental groups with equal probability (p = 0.25 for each group).

Individual survey participant.

No

4,000 individual survey participants (the treatment is not clustered).

4,000 individual survey participants.

1,000 participants in Group A (control), 1,000 participants in Group B (information treatment), 1,000 participants in Group C (WTP treatment), and 1,000 participants in Group D (WTP treatment with feedback).