Rational Ignorance In The UK

On June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom (UK) shocked the world when the majority unexpectedly voted to end a 43-year run in the European Union (EU). Dumbstruck, with jaws most likely agape, UK leaders, companies, and investors “have been clamoring for greater clarity about how Brexit will take effect” (Petfroll). The Brexit campaign, riddled with slogans like “Britain First” and “Believe in Britain,” made the vote appear to be more about British nationalism and obscure bureaucracy than a simple should “Should I stay or should I go?” referendum, with an ultimate and untimely victory for British nationalism. This isolationist trend soon manifested itself once again when, a little over a year later, the Americans, refusing to be outdone by the former

Many suggest “that the result may have been influenced by widespread political ignorance” (Somin). Rational ignorance is an economic and political term describing the rational ignorance among voters in regards to politics, ideas, etc. when the cost of becoming informed outweighs the benefits of being informed. Given that this theory holds validity, one can reasonably assume that voters regularly make uninformed and uneducated decisions at the polls. Were the Brits ignorant of the potential economic backfire leaving the EU would entail? Undeniably so, given the rationale discussed in this paper. Furthermore, the concept of rational ignorance includes the process that those who have high enough stakes in public policy have an incentive to become rationally informed. This occurrence is observable throughout a majority of the democratic world. The LGBT community is very rationally informed about policies affecting their equality, and farmers are rationally informed about quotas pertaining to cheap produce. However, the farmer, assuming he/she does not belong to or have association with the LGBT community, is rationally ignorant about equality policy and vice versa. Becoming informed on all of the current issues and policies would consume an unreal amount of time and effort. People have full lives often consisting of children, careers, finances, and leisure with only a certain amount of hours in the day, and Voters, more often than not, refuse to sacrifice time from these various aspects in order to inform themselves on policies that do not directly impact their life. “The British treasury estimates that the nation’s households each stand to lose an average of $7,000” (Klass), given that alarming statistic, why did the referendum result the way it did? The economic impact, higher prices, to