The More You Know, The More You Don’t

Do you know someone you’d consider a know-it-all? A new study reveals that people who consider themselves experts on a given topic are more likely to accept made-up “facts” about that topic. Researchers had 100 people rate their level of knowledge about personal finance by describing their familiarity with 15 different financial terms. The participants were not told that some of the terms they were given were fake. Ultimately, participants who claimed to be personal finance experts were more likely to identify the fake words as genuine financial jargon. Study author Stav Atir, a psychologist at Cornell University says, “The more people believed they knew about finances in general, the more likely they were to over-claim knowledge of the fictitious financial terms. The same pattern emerged for other domains, including biology, literature, philosophy, and geography.” (Time) (Image: www.flickr.com)