Other benefits - not looking stupid in front of your boss 2. D. Voters are however fairly able to correctly answer questions about affairs, scandals, personalities, and so on. If voters' goal was to pick sensible policies, this would be a crazy way to allocate mental energy. But if the main reason voters pay attention to politics is personal entertainment, this pattern is easy to understand. We will be exploring the practical significance of voter ignorance throughout the course.
People are rational ignorant about many things besides politics.
I am rationally ignorant about car mechanics, the activities of the firms I invest in, and so on. If you weigh your costs and your benefits, it doesn't help you . B. Going back to public goods theory, it seems that acquiring political information must be a public good. Everyone benefits when the electorate is more informed, since sensible policies are more likely to prevail. But these benefits go to the informed and uninformed alike, leaving no private incentive to gather information.