Do you want to stay updated with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to receive an email every time a new column is published. The purpose of “How to Build a Life” is simple: to make academic social science research accessible to a wide audience. With my academic background, I aim to translate sometimes complex scholarship into practical lessons for happiness. In the process, I often find myself debunking poor or incomplete advice found on the internet and providing sound guidance based on scholarship and science. The internet is filled with self-proclaimed experts who claim to have a magical solution to completely transform your life. And this doesn’t just pertain to my field. The internet has become a breeding ground for both useful and nonsensical information, including technical-sounding nutrition advice, questionable investment tips, and health guidance promising miraculous treatments unknown to medical professionals. Even my own doctor has mentioned the challenge of correcting the misinformation patients get from “Dr. Google”.
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Some of what people come across is outright fake news, designed to dupe consumers. However, a significant amount of bad advice on the web can be traced back to a psychological phenomenon known as “the illusion of explanatory depth”. Understanding this illusion not only makes you a smarter consumer of knowledge but also reduces the likelihood of you promoting false information yourself.
In 2002, two psychologists conducted experiments and found that when people are initially exposed to technical information, they tend to overestimate how deeply they understand it. Graduate students were asked to read basic descriptions of how eight mechanical items worked, such as a speedometer, a zipper, and a piano key. Afterward, participants rated their understanding on a 1-7 scale, with the average self-rating being around 4. They were then prompted to explain the workings of these items in their own words without referring to what they had read, and also compared their understanding against an expert. At this stage, nearly everyone’s self-rating dropped, with the average falling as low as 3. In other words, participants felt more knowledgeable than they actually were initially.
This finding was called the “illusion of explanatory depth”. The phenomenon is comparable to the well-known Dunning-Kruger effect, which explains how individuals with low skills in an activity tend to overestimate their competence. One explanation for this is that people are unaware of what they don’t know.
We all fall victim to this tendency. When you first encounter an explanation of string theory tailored for laypeople, you may momentarily feel like you comprehend it and experience a surge of intellectual prowess. However, when you attempt to explain something as complex as the structure of a Bach fugue or listen to an expert delve deeply into the subject, you realize how little you actually grasped initially.
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The overconfidence stemming from the illusion of explanatory depth can lead to the spread of misinformation. Research has shown that when a person’s confidence is high but their actual knowledge is low, they become highly persuasive to others despite lacking reliability. The more inaccurate individuals are, or the more they desire to believe in the validity of their perception, the more easily they are swayed by their uninformed overconfidence.
This explains the prevalence of internet experts and those who rely on them. Almost everywhere you look online, you can find technically inaccurate information. It’s not always intentional deception, although that certainly exists. The internet is a platform of freedom and accessibility, which often causes people to succumb to the illusory sense of understanding. They confidently share their newfound expertise acquired from a single article or a couple of videos.
We succumb to the illusion of explanatory depth both as consumers and producers. Addressing the challenges faced by consumers of misinformation is difficult because it’s not always easy to distinguish true experts from individuals with false confidence. The key question to ask is whether the source of the technical assertion has a genuine technical background. If not, it’s wise to proceed with caution.
If you’re hearing from a nonexpert who relies on the work of researchers, try to consult the original sources to ensure their reliability and to check if they were selectively chosen to support the author’s biases. As a general rule, if a piece of technical information seems too good to be true, it probably is. This applies to any promise of a simple solution to long-standing problems.
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Dealing with the second condition, being a purveyor of bad information, is easier to manage. Remember, Google is not equivalent to graduate school. Discovering new ideas is exciting, and many researchers believe that curiosity itself is a positive emotion rooted in the evolutionary drive to learn. Browsing the web in search of interesting things is enjoyable. However, beware of falling into the trap of the illusion of explanatory depth. If you think you understand something complex after only a brief exposure, you might be able to apply that knowledge in your life to some extent, but it’s highly unlikely that you truly comprehend it enough to become an authority on the subject.
I’ve discussed individuals with inadequate expertise unknowingly spreading misinformation. However, I must acknowledge that even experts can disseminate incorrect information. This is especially true when it comes to predicting the future, as experts are often only slightly more accurate than flipping a coin. But experts can also be wrong about what’s right in front of them. They, too, can succumb to groupthink, social norms, politics, fear of disapproval, and cultural trends. I remind myself of this reality every day.
Regardless of the source of advice you’re receiving, always think critically and maintain a healthy sense of skepticism. No one possesses perfect knowledge or insight; everyone has biases and blind spots. And if you happen to be the expert, remember that humility is the one peculiar trick that can solve many problems.
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