Google Gives People 'Widely Inaccurate' View of Their Own Intelligence, Study

Using Google makes people overestimate their own intelligence, according to a new study.

The study conducted by psychologists at Yale University considered more than 1,000 students. According to researchers, the false belief is because they have the world's knowledge at their fingertips.

"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," said lead researcher Matthew Fisher, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in psychology at Yale University.

"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."

Researchers noted that cognitive effects of "being in search mode" on the internet were so powerful that people still feel smarter even when their online searches did not help.

According to researchers, this phenomenon could potentially contribute to the hardening of political beliefs, as internet searches increase the perception that one's viewpoint is more solid than an opponent's.

"In cases where decisions have big consequences, it could be important for people to distinguish their own knowledge and not assume they know something when they actually don't," Mr Fisher added.

"The Internet is an enormous benefit in countless ways, but there may be some trade-offs that aren't immediately obvious and this may be one of them.

"Accurate personal knowledge is difficult to achieve, and the Internet may be making that task even harder."

The study was published in the American Psychological Association Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.