Chapter 2
The perception of own capabilities vs. reality 2.1. The illusion of explanatory depth The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge11. Daniel Boorstin
A book by Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach The Knowledge Illusion has become a basis for this part. It was described as ‘the newest guide on the mechanisms of human intelligence’ by Psychology Today and became the crucial pillar for the author’s understanding of what the illusion of explanatory depth is. The illusion of explanatory depth is an assumption that one perfectly understands cause and effect relationships, while, as a matter of fact, it is far from the case. Rozenblit and Keil, both Yale psychologists, first studied and coined this term back in 2002 with the study The Misunderstood Limits of Folk Science: An Illusion of Explanatory Depth. According to them, the illusion of explanatory depth is the incorrectly held belief that one understands the world on a deeper level than one actually does. Among other things, such as tests to prove that this is the case, they outlined four factors that contribute to this illusion of explanatory depth. The first one is to change blindness. This is a phenomenon that can be explained by the example of a bicycle. A person knows what a bike looks like, but if they close their eyes and are asked to picture a bike, the picture will be different from what the actual object Krucoff, C., 1984 January 19. The 6 O’clock Scholar: Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin and His Love Affair with Books. The Washington Post.
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