Institutions Promoting or Countering Deliberate Ignorance

This chapter examines the institutional implications associated with facilitating or combatting deliberate ignorance, and explores concrete institutional mechanisms that could serve to limit, distort, or otherwise structure peoples’ informational environment. It examines the basic building block that individuals might use to achieve their goals— contracts—and highlights the advantages and problems associated with consensual mechanisms that could be used in this regard. The chapter further analyzes how organizational structures and mechanisms (e.g., corporations) may be utilized to compartmentalize information and construct the informational environment. Finally, it introduces a new institutional frontier— technology—and shows how developments in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning can promote the goals discussed throughout the chapter.