The Khan Academy did a video where they asked random people in the streets what the internet is, a question to which almost all gave some ridiculous answers —confidently. A young girl said it is the WiFi because, according to her, "no WiFi, no internet", and a grown-up said, "It is like plumbing, it’s always moving".

The phenomenon this tries to prove is that we most times possess untested knowledge about things, which may turn out to be incomplete or outrightly wrong. This is called The Illusion Of Explanatory Depth (IOED for short).

Yet, the reality of tacit knowledge proves that it is human to know and not be able to explain in great detail, or in any details for that matter.

The Illusion Of Explanatory Depth

The term IOED was coined by Leonid Rozenblit and Frank Keil in 2002, stating: "Most people feel they understand the world with far greater detail, coherence, and depth when they really don’t".

The two were able to prove this oddity through multiple multiphase studies. In the first phase, Rozenblit and Keil asked participants to rank how well they understood fabrications such as a cell phone, crossbow, or a sowing machine; and in the second phase asked the participants to put down a well-detailed explanation of how each fabrication works. Afterward, the participants were finally asked to re-rank how well they understood each one.

Repeatedly, the outcome of the study showed that ratings of self-knowledge plummeted dramatically from phase one to phase two, after participants were faced with their inability to explain how the fabrications operate.

Beyond fabricated objects, the IOED extends to more abstract things like politics, tax laws, human rights, and many other things. It seems we don’t know as much as we think we do, and we sometimes possess a misunderstanding in the place of an understanding.

Explanations So Far

In part, the reason for this may be because what we think we know about a thing is usually dominated by how we feel about it.

Prof. Steven Sloman, a cognitive psychologist at Brown University explained: “If you’re forced to give an explanation, you have to really understand, and you have to confront the fact that you might not understand. Whereas when you give reasons, then you do what people do around the Thanksgiving dinner table. They talk about their feelings about it, what they like, what they don’t like.”

Also, it may well be as a result ...

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