Science says: know-it-alls do not always think critically

Aiii, this one hits hard. I unfortunately have to admit that I can be quite a know-it-all. Okay, I’m just one, always have been. But in the past, I denied it, so coming out with it now I see as personal growth. And yes, I also know: it’s really super annoying for those around me. I really try to pay attention to it too, but yeah… Sometimes I just know better.

That’s what I think, but studies say something very different. Namely, that know-it-alls are actually more likely to believe falsehoods and think less critically about whether something is true or not. This was researched by Stav Atir, Emily Rosenzweig, and David Dunning. for the journal Psychological Science.. They gathered 100 people in 2015, who had to assess their own knowledge regarding financial topics. This was investigated based on fifteen different financial terms.

What the test subjects didn’t know, however, was that some of the terms didn’t exist at all. Words like ‘pre-rated stocks’, ‘fixed-rate deduction’, and ‘annualized credit’, for example. Means nothing to me, I don’t know anything about the financial sector anyway, but that’s not so strange in this case. Did the people realize that themselves? Nah, not really.

The test subjects who indicated before the study that they were financial experts clearly indicated more often that they were familiar with the made-up terms. This was also done with other subjects than finance, and with the same outcome.

‘The more people believed and claimed to know something about a subject, the more they overestimated themselves and accepted made-up terms as truth.’

The conclusion of the researchers? They suggested reading much more about it, even if you think you know everything about a subject. Even if you think there’s nothing more to know: you’re wrong.