Homo Ignorans: Deliberately Choosing Not to Know

This has long been recognized in literature and philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche described a 'will to ignorance':

a 'suddenly erupting decision in favor of ignorance, of deliberate exclusion, a shutting of one's windows, an internal No to this or that, a refusal to let things approach, a kind of state of defence against much that is knowable, a satisfaction with the dark, with the limiting horizon, a Yea and Amen to ignorance'.

quoted in 'To Know or Not to Know', by Costica Bradatan, review of Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know by Mark Lilla, in TLS Apr 25, 2025, p. 12