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Cited by 20Information Retrieval and Search BehaviorEducational Strategies and EpistemologiesMemory Processes and Influences

Understanding why searching the internet inflates confidence in explanatory ability

Eliseev, Emmaline Drew, Marsh, Elizabeth J.·2023·Applied Cognitive Psychology
DOI 10.1002/acp.4058
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Abstract

People rely on the internet for easy access to information, setting up potential confusion about the boundaries between an individual's knowledge and the information they find online. Across four experiments, we replicated and extended past work showing that online searching inflates people's confidence in their knowledge. Participants who searched the internet for explanations rated their explanatory ability higher than participants who read but did not search for the same explanations. Two experiments showed that extraneous web page content (pictures) does not drive this effect. The last experiment modeled how search engines yield results; participants saw (but did not search for) a list of hits, which included “snippets” that previewed web page content, before reading the explanations. Participants in this condition were as confident as participants who searched online. Previewing hits primes to‐be‐read content, in a modern‐day equivalent of Titchener's famous example of a brief glance eliciting false feelings of familiarity.

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Crossref · 10.1002/acp.4058

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6 of 6 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • IOED arises from a false sense of familiarity with a large body of information, which emerges when participants are exposed to multiple snippets from different websites.

    “Eliseev & Marsh (2023) conceptually replicated the findings by Fisher et al. (2015) but proposed a different mechanism for the effect: according to them, the IOED does not arises from knowledge misattribution, rather from a false sense of familiarity with a large body of information, which emerges when participants are exposed to multiple snippets from different websites.”

    From Overconfidence without Understanding: AI Explanations Increase the Illusion of Explanatory Depth (2025) · cites this paper as Eliseev & Marsh (2023)

  • The emergence of IOED in digital contexts is more likely driven by knowledge misattribution rather than by the presentation of numerous snippets.

    “Importantly, they demonstrate a similar effect in an interface fundamentally different from search engines, suggesting that the emergence of IOED in digital contexts is more likely driven by knowledge misattribution (Fisher & Oppenheimer, 2021;Ward, 2021) rather than by the presentation of numerous snippets (Eliseev & Marsh, 2023).”

    From Overconfidence without Understanding: AI Explanations Increase the Illusion of Explanatory Depth (2025) · cites this paper as Eliseev & Marsh, 2023

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Authors
Eliseev, E. D., & Marsh, E. J.
Affiliations
Duke University (US)
Corresponding author
Marsh, Elizabeth J.
ORCID
Venue
Applied Cognitive Psychology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2023-03-20
Volume
37
Issue
4
Pages
711-720
ISSN
  • 0888-4080 (ISSN-L)
  • 1099-0720
DOI
10.1002/acp.4058
OpenAlex
W4323925757
Cited by
20
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4
FWCI
3.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
Applied Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Information Retrieval and Search Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Strategies and Epistemologies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
Keywords
overconfidence, web search, online information, metacognition, search engine snippets, knowledge confidence

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