Knowing Ignorance

The term ‘Informed Ignorance’ was coined by Bernd Ulrich to describe a central paradox in dealing with the ecological crisis – particularly the climate crisis. It refers to the attitude where people and societies are aware of the drama and urgency of ecological problems but simultaneously suppress this knowledge or fail to translate it into consistent action.

Bernhard Pörksen picks up on this in his book ‘Listening’.

Ulrich describes this informed ignorance as the 'puzzle of informed ignorance and murmuring suppression'. Although scientific findings on climate change, species extinction, and other ecological challenges are widely available and socially present, the response to them is often hesitant, inconsistent, or even contradictory. Society is aware of the problem, but there is a lack of willingness or ability to draw the necessary consequences from it.

• In his book Everything Will Change. The Age of Ecology (2019), Ulrich analyzes how political and societal actors trim the problems to fit into familiar political solutions – instead of seeking new, appropriate responses to the ecological challenges. He describes this form of suppression as neurotic for society.

• In the ZEIT article ‘The Injured Human’ (2022, together with Fritz Engel), informed ignorance is described as a collective mental blockade: Although humanity recognizes the crisis and the means to solve it are available, action fails to materialize. According to Ulrich and Engel, the reasons lie less in scientific-technical deficiencies and more in psychological, cultural, and mental resistances.

Core Theses of Ulrich

• The ecological crisis is not primarily a knowledge problem, but a problem of the mental processing and societal implementation of knowledge.

• The political culture is not prepared for the depth and radical nature of the necessary changes. Instead, the issue is ignored, appeased, or shifted to peripheral arenas.

• Overcoming ‘informed ignorance’ requires a mental and cultural shift that goes beyond technological or isolated political measures.

Illustrative Quote

If the existential, dramatic and urgent crisis in the human-nature relationship is scientifically so obvious, widely discussed, and many means to address it are available, why does humanity continue to plunge deeper into this self-destructive crisis? Why do they suppress what they continuously discuss?

Bernd Ulrich's concept of 'informed ignorance' describes a central blockade in dealing with the ecological crisis: The awareness of urgency is present, but it is collectively suppressed or ignored, leading to a lack of necessary change. The challenge lies in overcoming this mental and cultural blockade to enable societal action.

Proximity to Cognitive Dissonance

Those who assume that ‘informed ignorance’ might be a collective form of cognitive dissonance are probably right. It is very plausible and can be well explained psychologically, also bearing resemblance to Orwellian doublethink.

Cognitive Dissonance describes the uncomfortable state when people experience contradictory cognitions – such as knowledge, attitudes, values, or actions. This state creates internal pressure to resolve the contradiction, for example through suppression, justification, or selective perception245. People tend to ignore or relativize unpleasant truths to maintain their self-image and psychological balance.

Informed Ignorance – as described by Bernd Ulrich – means that people or societies are aware of the drama of a crisis (e.g., climate change) but actively suppress this knowledge or fail to translate it into consistent action. The knowledge is present but is ignored or relativized to avoid enduring the internal or societal conflict.

Thus, informed ignorance is indeed a collective manifestation of cognitive dissonance: Society is aware of the contradictions between knowledge and action, between problem awareness and actual response, and develops collective strategies of suppression or justification to reduce the unpleasant tension245.

In short: Informed ignorance is a societal example of cognitive dissonance – only that the mechanism is not solely individual but collectively effective.