Final answer:
Rational ignorance suggests that voters will opt to stay uninformed about issues that do not interest them or if they believe their vote won't be decisive. This accounts for low voter turnout in the U.S. With easier access to information via the internet, voter turnout could potentially increase but might remain unaffected if voters still feel their individual vote is not crucial. Therefore given statement is C
Step-by-step explanation:
The concept of rational ignorance suggests that voters may choose to remain uninformed about certain political issues. This is because they believe their single vote is unlikely to change the outcome of an election. Given that the cost of becoming well-informed can be high, and considering that their vote is statistically unlikely to be decisive, voters may decide it is not worth the effort.
Therefore, in response to the student's question, the correct answer would be: c. be ignorant about issues that are of no special interest to them. This theory contributes to our understanding of why voter turnout is often low, as people may not see the value in investing time and resources into becoming informed on issues that they feel will not be affected by their individual vote.
With the advent of the internet, one might expect that as information becomes more accessible, the cost of becoming informed decreases. It could therefore be hypothesized that voter turnout might increase as the barriers to information are reduced. However, rational ignorance theory might still hold if voters continue to feel that their vote is not decisive, regardless of the ease of obtaining information.