My Philosophical Bermuda Triangle

I have, of late, found myself in a philosophical dilemma.  It started here:

"Why do we ask questions that we already know we don't want to know the answer to?"

As I was debating this issue, I began to wonder if I really wanted to know the answer to that particular question.  If we're doing things that are only going to hurt us, why do we do it?  Are we all gluttons for punishment?  Like to pour lemon juice on our paper cuts?  What does this behavior say about us?

Ponder, ponder, ponder.

I started to think back to some of the times that I've asked questions I knew I wouldn't like the answer to, and this is what I discovered: it's not really that we don't want to know the answer.  It's that we already know, but there's some sort of therapy in hearing it from someone else, rather than just inside our own heads.

That's one answer.  But I wasn't satisfied with that, so I asked around, and I liked this answer, from J: "I suspect the fear of getting the answer we expect is outweighed by the hope that the answer is something else."

So with that, I'll ask away.  I leave it to others will decide whether I'm masochistic or hopeful.