#knowledge illusion

[misentropy]

the knowledge illusion

In 2002, the psychologists Frank Keil and Leonid Rozenblit asked people to rate their own understanding of how zips work. The respondents answered very confidently – after all, they used zips all the time. But when asked to explain how a zip works, they failed dismally. Similar results have been obtained with respect to flush toilets, piano keys, helicopters and bicycles. It doesn’t just apply to physical objects: people have been found to overestimate their understanding of climate change, the tax system and foreign policy.

We know a lot less than we think we do about the world around us. Cognitive scientists call this “the illusion of explanatory depth”, and sometimes just “the knowledge illusion”. Collectively, we know an awful lot, but each individual’s knowledge of the world is much sketchier and more superficial than he or she imagines. Only when pushed to explain what we think we know in detail do we briefly apprehend the epistemological abyss gaping beneath our beliefs.

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[mathewlowry]

we evolved to solve complex problems not independently but dependently in a group setting.... the knowledge illusion... much of our “knowledge” is not knowledge in the sense of understanding how things work but ... faith... in other people  -... smart people with PhDs... whatever  -  who I trust to know these things that I do not know.... for those of us interested in thinking more clearly, the most important thing we can do may not be to retreat into solitude or to find like-minded people.... we should try to associate with people who hold differing beliefs ... but also share the same values ... respect for others, willingness to criticize ... thirst for truth. via: Diigo, IFTTT

[mathewlowry]

the knowledge illusion is a common form of human fallibility, but Trump takes it to an exceptional degree... When asked to explain something, he changes the subject, his confidence in his knowledge unwavering... reflectivity... whether people are likely to be highly deluded about their own knowledge... Low scores on the reflectivity test correlated with people seeing deep meaning in “pseudo-profound bullshit” statements... Dunning-Kruger... effect describes the way people who are the least competent at a task often rate their skills as exceptionally high because they are too ignorant to know what it would mean to have the skill... Dunning-Kruger effect applies to people’s very ability to reason and reflect... getting close to Will’s diagnosis of Donald Trump as a person who thinks he knows everything but in fact doesn’t know what it is to know something. via: Diigo, IFTTT