Rational Ignorance

Rational ignorance is a voter's conscious decision to remain uninformed about a political issue. This ignorance is considered to be "rational" when the marginal cost of learning about the issue exceeds the marginal benefit of voting because one vote is unlikely to change the outcome.

This overlooks intangible benefits to voting beyond influencing the outcome, such as a feeling of participation and investment in the community and connecting with other people who voted. Also, information is efficiently gained by voting, including reading referendums that may be on the ballot.

More generally, in economics, rational ignorance is a decision not to acquire certain knowledge because the cost of acquiring such knowledge is believed to outweigh the benefit of such knowledge.