The Illusion of Knowledge: Are You Smarter Than A College Student?

Megan Hayes | Opinion Editor

People studying at a table. / Photo by 'EyeFound', licensed by Envato.com.

In the age of AI and Google at our fingertips, it is extremely easy to feel like you know everything in college... or at least, you can figure it out. This age, between 17 and 22 for many students, is a time of rapid self-discovery and it is commonplace to feel a sense of pride, thinking that you've "figured everything out". Often, many of us think we know what we're doing in life, and we have our path figured out... or at least that's what we tell our parents or guardians when they ask. However, why is this state harmful to be in? Why is it harmful to be convinced that we know everything, even though it is a very common stage of young adulthood? Here, we will take a deep dive into thinking you know everything, and the danger that comes with it.

First off, we must address the illusion of knowledge... which is thinking you know everything. "I know" may fly out of your mouth so quick when someone tries to give you advice... but do you really? This illusion is a cognitive bias called the Dunning-Kruger effect, where people with limited knowledge tend to overestimate or overshoot their understanding of a topic due to ego reasons, or simply just the age group that college students find themselves in. The environment of college perfectly sets us up for this fault: the newly found autonomy of likely living by yourself away from your parents for the first time, the freedom of essentially getting to do whatever you want (within reason...) during the day, and complete and utter control over your situation in school. When we get these small bursts of ego-boosting autonomy, it often tends to push us towards the edge of thinking we know more than we really do. Especially when being able to experience unlimited learning in college, we really think we know more than we do.

Another reason why college students often get lumped together in the "I know everything" boat is the development of the prefrontal cortex still being underway. The prefrontal cortex is basically our center for judgement, self-awareness, and critical thinking... three things that must be apparent and present when learning that you really may not know it all. College student's brains are often still under development until they reach the age of about 25, give or take a few years, which puts us all in the perfect timespan to be a little ego-heavy and knowledge-weak. Having this autonomy for the first time, especially if your current state of affairs is going well, may cause young people to refuse to listen to others, especially for advice, because they feel they've got it "all figured out".

Additionally, in the social status side of college, admitting that you're wrong or that you don't know everything can be humbling... extremely humbling. Picture you're doing a group project and it feels like everyone is smarter than you... are you really going to admit on top of this that you don't know the answer? Or are you going to fake it till you make it and try your best to sound at least a little bit competent? I speak here from experience -- being a psychology major especially often leaves you in many situations like this, especially on the more researchy-side of things... it makes me shiver. Everyone seems to know what's going on except for you, and with your limited (hopefully) experience of feeling like this, and the current state of your college-aged brain, you best bet you're going to fake it until you make it! Projected confidence is something that many of us have been told about by friends or family members as a remedy to getting through something, but often, the most growth comes from admitting when you are wrong, and really listening to what others have to say.

Another part, as I had quickly mentioned before, is simply the readiness and accessibility of information these days. A quick Google search can give us all the answers we desire, especially if you have an artificial intelligence helper tab open on your computer... you can get all the answers you desire and more. Having this knowledge so readily available to us is somewhat like a curse, in my opinion, as it makes us all feel that we are smarter without really providing us with the basis and knowledge that we need to truly learn the information and encode and process it in our brains. Shallow knowledge may make us think that we know more than we do, but truly, it does more harm than good by preventing us from learning actual critical knowledge we need to take in to become better and more understanding humans, especially if the information has to do with interpersonal knowledge.

So, my piece of advice for you, my dear reader... take a breath, and when you don't know something, own it! Ask questions, ask for help, ask advice... this is when you will really learn. Faking knowledge, and most importantly, faking it till you make it, isn't going to get you very far in today's world, especially when most jobs right out of college require clear degrees and genuine knowledge that you've understood and learned. Take life as an experience, reader, and enjoy not knowing everything. Someday you'll be old and wishing you were still in college so you could learn something new. Knowledge is power.