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Far be it from us to disparage our friends doing important research in cognitive psychology, but some scientific questions really answer themselves.
New research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied and spotted by PsyPost suggests something grim: that people who most outspoken about their politics actually know the least about them.
The psych researchers surveyed 216 US adults living in the US. Each was asked to take a 60 question exam, which contained an equal number of questions favoring left- and right-wing leanings, as well as 20 generic questions. Participants were also asked to rate their confidence before and after answering the multiple-choice questions, as well as a questionnaire meant to measure their political leanings.
Though the average participant was broadly overconfident in their political knowledge, two groups stood out as having the worst results: those with less political knowledge overall, and those with right-wing views.
“We found that people are generally overconfident in their political knowledge, especially those who truly don’t know much about politics (the classic Dunning-Kruger effect),” the researchers wrote, referencing the cognitive bias in which those who know the least about a subject tend to overestimate their understanding.
“We also want to emphasize that when we say ‘political knowledge’ we mean verifiable political facts, like who the speaker of the house is or how many votes are needed to pass a bill,” the researchers clarified. “So, we were not presenting highly emotional or biased information for our participants to judge, and thus our results might not replicate in more politicized contexts.”
As the first research of its kind by a group of cognitive psychologists — particularly in the field of metacognition — the paper builds on a number of studies in the world of political science which point to similar outcomes.
Either way, it seems to confirm what many of us suspected all along: the Dunning-Kruger effect is real, and its votes count just as much as yours.
More on politics: Democracy Itself Is Falling Apart, Harvard Professor Warns
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