Adding information may increase overconfidence in accuracy of knowledge retrieval.

Feelings of retrospective confidence concerning the accuracy of a chosen answer might rely, among other things, on the amount of available information, regardless of its correctness. 43 participants, 26 women and 17 men (M age = 23.4 yr., SD = 3.5) in an intact group design, answered nine easy and nine difficult binary forced-choice questions and rated their confidence regarding the correctness of their choices. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, differing in the additional information provided regarding the questions: a control group provided with no additional information, a correct information group, and a misleading information group. Performance was worst in the misleading information group, yet no difference in confidence was found between the correct and misleading information groups. The findings were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that feelings of confidence partly reflect peripheral factors, indirectly related to choice processes.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes