REAL LIFE NEWS: GOOGLE MAKES YOU THINK YOU ARE SMART (BUT YOU AREN’T REALLY)
by Hazed
You may think that the ability to search Google for information makes you a genius. But it doesn’t – all it does is inflate your own idea of your intelligence. That’s according to psychologists from Yale University.
They warn that the ability to browse the internet for knowledge gives people a widely inaccurate view of how smart they are. This could mean that when they make decisions, they are over-confident.
The scientists ran a series of experiments, asking participants to search for information on a subject using the internet, while others learned about it using books or talking to a tutor. The internet users believed their research made them far more knowledgeable than the non-internetters, and they also thought their brains were sharper.
In one test, the groups were asked to learn about how a zip works. The internet group were given a website link which told them the information, while a control group were given a print-out of the same information.
Later, the same groups were asked about a different question: why are cloudy nights warmer? Neither group was given the answer, or allowed to look it up – but the internet users believed they were more knowledgeable.
Professor Frank Keil, one of the psychologists behind the study, thinks this is because the cognitive effects of “being in search mode” on the net were so great that they left people feeling smarter even when they were no longer searching online.
Lead researcher Matthew Fisher said, “With the internet, the lines become blurry between what you know and what you think you know.”
This inflated sense of personal knowledge could be dangerous if people have to take high-stakes decisions, such as politicians. “In cases where decisions have big consequences, it could be important for people to distinguish their own knowledge and not assume they know something when they actually don’t,” Mr Fisher added. “The Internet is an enormous benefit in countless ways, but there may be some trade-offs that aren’t immediately obvious and this may be one of them. Accurate personal knowledge is difficult to achieve, and the Internet may be making that task even harder.”
