Google makes people think they are more intelligent than they are

Google makes people think that they are more intelligent than they are, according to a new study.

A report published by psychologists at Yale University found that browsing the internet for information gives people a ‘widely inaccurate’ view of their own intelligence and could lead to over-confidence when making decisions.
The findings were published in the American Psychological Association Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and participants who had searched for information on the internet believed they were far more knowledgeable than they were.

Researchers carried out nine different experiments that suggested those who learn something online also often feel superior to those who learn it through books or via a teacher.

Around 1,000 students participated in the study aimed at gauging the psychological impact of searching on the internet.

The internet group were given a website link which gave the answer to the question ‘how does a zip work’ while a separate group were given a print-out with the same details.

When later questioned on an unrelated question, those from the internet group who had searched online believed they were more knowledgeable even though they were not allowed to look up the correct answer.

Speaking about the findings, Matthew Fisher, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in psychology at Yale University, said: "The Internet is such a powerful environment, where you can enter any question, and you basically have access to the world's knowledge at your fingertips.

"It becomes easier to confuse your own knowledge with this external source. When people are truly on their own, they may be wildly inaccurate about how much they know and how dependent they are on the Internet."

With the help of functional MRI images, researchers saw that people using the internet to uncover their information even saw their individual brains as more active.

Analysts said that in the wrong context, this kind of overinflated view of one's own knowledge can potentially be dangerous – especially when it comes to making political or critically important decisions.