Soapbox Science & Society

Deliberate ignorance is useful in certain circumstances, researchers say

Choosing not to know can be a way to reclaim lost power, a study suggests

A close up photo of detail on a building showing the sculpture of a head with a blindfold covering the person's eyes.

The former East German secret police, the Stasi, spied on people for years. But when given access to what the Stasi had supposedly collected, most people didn’t want to read the files, researchers found.

ADAM BERRY/AFP via Getty Images

By Sujata Gupta

In 1961, renowned German novelist Günter Grass openly criticized communist East Germany for building the Berlin Wall ostensibly to prevent West Germans from infiltrating the country.