Trusting Our Own Knowledge

What do we know about the topic of climate change and how great is our trust in our own knowledge? An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Heidelberg University has explored this question in a representative study involving around 500 participants. It turned out that those interviewed mainly were uncertain of their own level of knowledge when confronted with false statements. "We need to trust what we know in order to be able to take responsible decisions, to evaluate information and to recognise the limits of our own knowledge," says Dr Helen Fischer, who led the study at Heidelberg University's Institute of Psychology. "This is of particular importance in the area of climate change where scientifically correct information exists alongside substantial misinformation in public discourse." In order to find out how great people's trust in their own knowledge is, the researchers confronted the participants of the study with eight statements on the topic of climate change. The participants' task was to decide whether these statements were true or false. In a second step they were asked to state how certain they were of their reply - the six-point scale ranged from "Not at all sure, I was guessing" to "Certain, I know the answer". The results of the study show that, when confronted with true statements, the participants were able to assess their own level of knowledge well.