“I Don't Watch the News Anymore and I Haven't Died”: Ignorance As Strategic Resource in Dealing with Zoonotic Disease Risks

In our research on the interface between animal health and public health, we have noted that lay people often strategically invoke notions of ignorance in positioning their own knowledge in relation to scientific, public health and media understandings of zoonotic disease risks.  The period in which we conducted ten focus groups with UK citizens (2011-2012) was marked by a number of zoonotic disease events – past, present and future.  These included: a recent swine flu epidemic, which prompted a large scale public health campaign; on-going concerns about future outbreaks of avian flu; a recent outbreak of E.coli amongst children visiting a petting zoo; and a number of incidents of foodborne diseases, the most notable being the E.coli contamination of beanshoots in Germany. 

While referring to these events, respondents marshalled distinct discourses of ignorance and non-knowledge as an active choice and strategic resource, rather than a mere lack of understanding arising from passivity.  In this paper we explore several forms of such expressions of ignorance, including: the intentional bracketing out of unknowns (e.g. as an ‘ignorance is bliss’ strategy for avoiding anxiety); awareness of lack of information that was considered unimportant (e.g. as a strategy for distributing attention to other concerns); and dynamic mindfulness that further knowledge may be dangerous (e.g. both because ‘knowledge’ may make daily decision making impossible and as a strategy for living with the perceived inevitability of new, emergent diseases).