What is willful blindness?

The legal term is to describe a situation where an individual seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally putting himself in a position where he will be unaware of facts that would render him liable. What does this really mean? Someone uses ignorance to try to avoid getting in trouble. Why is it that so many people choose to ignore the obvious even if it can get them in serious trouble?

Let’s begin with what has been on the news in regards to willful blindness. When Rupert Murdoch appeared before the House of Commons over the phone hacking scandal, the first question he was asked was if he was familiar with the term willful blindness? His silence when asked basically told the committee that he was. He could have had the knowledge of what was going on at his newspaper but chose not to. This is one of many stories of people doing the same thing. What is it that they say about insanity? It is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The results with many of the legal aspects of willful blindness have been the same, the person was found guilty. Ignorance is not a valid defense, yet this still continues to happen everyday.

In Rupert Murdoch’s case was it cognitive dissonance? Many believe that he was well aware of what is going on yet pretended not to know or want to know. A person will actively avoid situations that would cause stress knowing that it is wrong .

Researchers have found that many people would rather give the obvious wrong answer if it meant they stayed as part of a group because the alternative would mean being an outsider even if it means telling the truth. In 2003, NYU studied an organization and found that 85% of executives had issues or concerns they never dared to articulate for fear of being an outcast or shunned by a boss or peer. This concept can be spread across various different scenarios such as the popular students in high school. If they bullied the less popular, someone in the group who may not agree will still go along so as not to be rejected by the rest of the group. In the case of Murdoch, it was easy to get people to follow even if they felt it was wrong because he had a system better known as a spoils system. The News Corporation was filled with family and/or friends who would never question even when they know they should. Is ignorance bliss? Many feel that knowing something doesn’t always give you the power to control it. Some employees from companies such as Enron felt that if they did say anything, no one would listen so why bother.

Another instance involves a banker who was charged with drug money laundering yet she stated that she did not know how they were making the money. Such obvious things like delivering money in garbage bags were supposedly lost on a person considered intelligent. In many of these cases, the persons investigated are considered highly-educated and experienced. This begs the question, why? Why do seemingly intelligent people think that they can use willful blindness as an excuse? There are many more documented cases of willful blindness and the successful prosecution of such cases. It amazes me that with all of these cases, someone will come along and think that they will be the one to be able to use willful blindness as a defense. What makes you different than the others?

The more I look into this willful blindness, the more I am puzzled by those using it as a defense. Let’s take the guy who refused to use his van to deliver drugs but then left the keys in the van along with this friend who made the request. He went to watch the super bowl for 3 hours. When he returned, he saw that the original container that housed the drugs was gone. He got back into his van and drove away. A word that comes up quite frequently in these cases is intent. Does lack of knowledge equal lack of intent? A drug smuggler claims lack of intent as they had no knowledge of the content in the packages they were delivering.

Why do people ignore facts? Studies say that people tend to seek out information confirming what they believe instead of searching for information that may contradict a belief. I’m not sure this is the same thing by definition as willful blindness but ignoring the facts is definitely a defense used in willful blindness cases. It is obvious based on the number of successfully prosecuted cases that people love to ignore facts. The fact is that you cannot use “I didn’t know” as a defense when you “probably knew” or “chose not to know”. The burden of proof has fallen squarely on the defense in these cases over and over again yet people, especially white collar workers are continuing to ignore that fact and still attempt to use as an excuse. It is said that we form emotional attachments that get wrapped up in our personal identity no matter what facts are presented to the contrary. This in turn can lead to making justifications for behavior, good or bad.

What is confirmation bias? It is not exactly ignorance which is when one is unaware of something. It is more willful ignorance in that one is fully aware of the facts but refuses to acknowledge them. Huh? In my research of this topic, I found one term which I felt summed it up, tactical stupidity. I absolutely love that terminology as in my mind, I kept saying, “Are these people stupid?”. These are supposedly people of intelligence disregarding facts and/or evidence of wrong-doing. Did you know that confirmation bias is also known as myside bias? I don’t think much more needs to be said on this subject as it is painfully obvious.

What is the truth? According to the definition of confirmation bias, the truth is the result of years of paying attention to information that confirms what you believe while ignoring information that challenges your beliefs. This in turn leads to what’s called frequency illusion. An example of frequency illusion is that you are thinking about buying a car and suddenly you see people driving that car all over the road. What does this all mean and how does it relate to willful blindness?

Let’s recap, willful blindness is maybe knowing something but pretending not to know. Is that ignorance? Ignoring the facts does not mean that they are not there in plain view. What’s cognitive dissonance? A person will actively avoid situations and information that go against their personal beliefs. This goes back to willful blindness. Rupert Murdoch knew what his employees were doing and it most likely went against his beliefs but he chose to ignore what was happening. He chose to ignore the facts. Was there any confirmation bias in his actions? Many would say yes as he made the choice to ignore the fact or acknowledge what was going on at his newspaper. Throughout researching this topic, it has really reinforced what I have thought about many of these “white collar criminals”. They do not have enough common sense to learn that they will share the same fate as those before them. Tactical stupidity is my new favorite word.