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How should environments be designed to be transparent about the consequences of one’s actions? Our findings suggest that reducing opportunities for ignorance and highlighting how prescribing affects society by making collective consequences salient supports more appropriate decisions. (5/5)

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In Experiment 2, we made the collective costs—impact of antibiotic prescribing on patients and society—salient. This reduced the effect: Healthcare professionals still immediately prescribed more when consequences were hidden, but not significantly more than under default diagnostic certainty. (4/5)

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In Experiment 1, our results show that when healthcare professionals are given the choice to avoid learning about the consequences of their actions and decide to remain in this moral wiggle room, they are more likely to overprescribe antibiotics. (3/5)

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We adapted the Moral Wiggle Room Task to an antibiotic prescribing scenario: comparing full information (diagnostic certainty) to hidden information (diagnostic uncertainty), where healthcare professionals could reveal the consequences of their treatment choice prior to making their decision. (2/5)

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Robert Böhm @robertboehm.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

🚨 New in @jexpsocpsych.bsky.social: Willful ignorance in the context of antibiotic prescribing New paper together with @miroslavsirota.bsky.social, @riangross.bsky.social, Lars Korn, @elisie.bsky.social, @corneliabetsch.bsky.social, and @robertboehm.bsky.social! Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.je...

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Reposted by Alina Schneider

🚨 New in @science.org: CDC communication undermines trust in vaccines Link to the publication: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... I’m excited to share this paper, which I wrote together with @schneali.bsky.social, @corneliabetsch.bsky.social & @laulilleholt.bsky.social (1/5)

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Find out more via: doi.org/10.31234/osf... (6/6)

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These findings highlight the importance of promoting transparency and designing healthcare environments that reduce opportunities for information avoidance to encourage appropriate antibiotic prescribing. (5/6)

Using a behavioral decision-making task, we found clear evidence: when faced with diagnostic uncertainty, many healthcare professionals chose not to resolve it, leading to higher rates of immediate antibiotic prescribing. (4/6)

Our study (N = 698, US/UK) explored whether willful ignorance—the active avoidance of information about potential negative consequences of one’s actions—contributes to this behavior. (3/6)

Despite understanding the risks of antibiotic resistance, overprescription remains common, especially under diagnostic uncertainty and patient pressure. (2/6)