The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone

We wander around in a fog of unknowing, argue Sloman (cognitive, linguistic, & psychological sciences, Brown Univ.; editor in chief, Cognition) and Fernbach (marketing, Leeds Sch. of Business, Univ. of Colorado). We depend on a web of experts and the technology they've created to keep our world going. Even Paleolithic societies had specialists—shamans, flint knappers, etc. The downside is that we tend to think that we know more than we do. Most people, for example, say that they understand how a toilet works or why a certain social policy should be enacted. But when asked to describe plumbing or explain why they advocate a policy, they are unable to do so. This is called the "Illusion of Explanatory Depth." It can lead to flooded bathrooms and wars. Sloman and Fernbach offer suggestions for minimizing the damage that this can cause, but, interestingly enough, this book illustrates the problem of specialization. The authors apparently aren't aware of some of the classic work done on values change by social psychologists.