Each of these countervailing reasons often comes into play for human beings. Much information is irrelevant to our goals; we can often rely on others’ skill and expertise; acquiring knowledge takes time and effort; we might intrinsically value certain kinds of ignorance; and we operate in an environment in which the ability to make strategic commitments, socially signal, and satisfy other people’s direct preferences over our own epistemic states is often more important to us than simple cognitive gains.
