Searching for explanations: How the Internet inflates estimates of internal knowledge.
Abstract
As the Internet has become a nearly ubiquitous resource for acquiring knowledge about the world, questions have arisen about its potential effects on cognition. Here we show that searching the Internet for explanatory knowledge creates an illusion whereby people mistake access to information for their own personal understanding of the information. Evidence from 9 experiments shows that searching for information online leads to an increase in self-assessed knowledge as people mistakenly think they have more knowledge "in the head," even seeing their own brains as more active as depicted by functional MRI (fMRI) images.
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The Illusion of Explanatory Depth tends to increase when people search for explanations online.
“The Illusion of Explanatory Depth (IOED), i.e., the tendency to overestimate the coherence and depth of one's understanding, tends to increase when people search for explanations online.”
From Overconfidence without Understanding: AI Explanations Increase the Illusion of Explanatory Depth (2025) · cites this paper as Fisher et al., 2015
Cites
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“An individual in a highly integrated social environment (Hutchins, 1995) may conflate knowledge “in the head” with knowledge stored in other human sources, such as fellow members of a cockpit crew.”
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“Similarly, an individual with access to unique information will become responsible for that information (Wegner, 1987).”
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“Prior work on the Internet’s effects on perceived knowledge suggests that access to external information can inflate people’s estimates of their own knowledge (Sparrow et al., 2011; Fisher et al., 2015).”
Overconfidence without Understanding: AI Explanations Increase the Illusion of Explanatory Depth
Aslanov, I., Felmer, P., & Guerra, E. (2025) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/8psgf_v1
- Authors
- Fisher, M., Goddu, M. K., & Keil, F. C.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Published
- 2015-06
- Volume
- 144
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 674-687
- ISSN
- 0096-3445 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2222
- OpenAlex
- W2151132174
- Cited by
- 330
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 60 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 50 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 7
- FWCI
- 50.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychology General (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Fuller Theological Seminary/Thrive Center
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Information Retrieval and Search Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Strategies and Epistemologies
- Keywords
- internet use, self-assessment of knowledge, overconfidence, explanatory knowledge, web information retrieval, metacognition, functional MRI, cognitive effects of technology
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Memory, Knowledge, Internet, Young Adult
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