The Blissful Ignorance Effect : Pre Versus Post Action Effects on Outcome-Expectancies Arising from Precise and Vague Information

This article examines the effects on outcome-expectancies of precise versus vague information across two contexts: prior to an action taken by the consumer (pre-action) and after the action is taken (post-action). Across three experiments, we show that with vague information individuals are more optimistic of outcomes post-action compared to pre-action; this difference is attenuated with precise information. We term this inconsistency the Blissful Ignorance Effect and show that it arises due to the interplay of two goals in decision-making, the goal to arrive at a desired conclusion (directional goal) and the goal to be accurate (accuracy goal) about one's outcome-expectancies