Searching for data on the Internet makes us believe that we are smarter, according to a study
Internet search engines and encyclopedic web pages are a powerful tool when it comes to finding all kinds of information in a matter of seconds. However, our relationship with the cyber world is not only one-way. We are also affected by the use we make of the Internet, even if we do not realize it. For example, a recent article published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology suggests that the simple fact of using the network to access information could be making us consider ourselves smarter than we really are .
Researchers Matthew Fisher, Mariel K. Goddu and Frank C. Keil, of Yale University, believe that simply perceiving that we are able to access massive amounts of information quickly through electronic devices makes us more prone to overestimate our level of knowledge . This hypothesis is supported by one of his latest research, in which he experimented with people who actively searched for data on the internet and others who did not have that possibility.
The different variants of the experiment show how the simple fact of having conducted an Internet search is sufficient for participants to significantly overvalue their ability to retain and use information without consulting the network.
Questions and scales
The research of Fisher and his team began with a first phase in which a series of questions were asked to the volunteers. However, some of these people were not allowed to use any external information source, while the rest had to search for an answer on the Internet for each question. Once this phase was over, the volunteers were given new questions related to topics that had nothing to do with what they had been asked before. Participants had to rate on a scale of 1 to 7 the degree to which they thought they were capable of explaining questions related to the topic of each of the questions posed.
The results extracted from the statistical analysis showed how the people who had consulted Internet they were significantly more optimistic when it came to scoring themselves to offer explanations on the topics covered in the questions.
However, to complement the results obtained, the researchers decided to create a more complete variant of the experiment in which, before having the possibility of looking for an answer to a question with or without the help of the internet, all participants had to rate their perception of the level of knowledge with a scale between 1 and 7, in the same way that they would have to do in the last phase of the experiment.
In this way it was possible to verify that in the two experimental groups (people who would use the Internet and those who did not) there were no significant differences in the way of perceiving one's level of knowledge . It was after the phase in which some people looked for information in the network when these differences arose.
More experiments in this regard
In another version of the experiment, the researchers focused on making sure that the members of the two groups saw exactly the same information, in order to see how people influence the simple fact of actively searching the Internet, regardless of what they do. that is.
For this, some people were given instructions on how to go to find specific information about the question to a specific website where those data were found, while the rest of the people were directly shown those documents with the answer, without giving them the possibility of looking for it by themselves. People with the possibility of looking for information online continued to show a clear propensity to believe themselves smarter, judging from their self-scoring way on scales 1 to 7.
The test to which the volunteers were subjected had some more variants to control in the best possible way the variables that could contaminate the results. For example, in different experiments different search engines were used. And, in an alternative version of the test, the score of the level of knowledge itself was replaced by a final phase in which the volunteers had to observe several images of brain scans and decide which of those pictures looked more like his own brain . In line with the other results, people who had been searching the Internet tended to choose images in which the brain showed more activation.
What made the participants overvalue their knowledge was not the fact of having found an answer to an issue on the Internet, but the simple fact of being able to search for information on the net.Researchers realized this when they saw how those people who had to find an answer impossible to find on the Internet tended to overestimate themselves as much as those who did find what they were looking for.
A price to pay
These results seem to talk about a Mephistophelean contract between us and the Internet. Search engines offer us the virtual possibility of knowing everything if we have an electronic device nearby, but, at the same time, this could make us more blind to our limitations to find answers for ourselves, without the help of anything or anyone. In a way, this brings us back to the Dunning-Kruger Effect. It may have blessed us with the ability to believe that things are simpler than they really are, and it is even possible that this is very useful in the vast majority of cases. However, this could become a problem when we have a resource as powerful as the Internet at hand.
It is convenient not to get lost and end up sacrificing on the altar of God Google our ability to judge our abilities. After all, the network of networks is extensive enough to make it difficult to find the point at which our neurons end and fiber optic cables begin.
Bibliographic references
- Fisher, M., Goddu, M. K. and Keil, F. C. (2015). Searching for Explanations: How the Internet Inflates Estimates of Internal Knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, consult online at //www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-0000 ...
