A new study has found internet access makes you think you’re smarter than you really are

IT turns out Google is making people think they are smarter than they actually are.

That is the finding of a new study from Yale University aimed at gauging the psychological impact of searching on the internet.

“The internet is such a powerful environment, where you can enter any question, and you basically have access to the world’s knowledge at your fingertip,” lead researcher Matthew Fisher told the Telegraph.

“It becomes easier to confuse your own knowledge with this external source. When people are truly on their own, they may be wildly inaccurate about how much they know and how dependent they are on the internet.”

For one aspect of the study, 1000 students were split into two groups and were then asked how a zipper works.

The first group was given a website link containing the answer, while the other was given a printout of the same information as a control.

Both groups were later quizzed later on why cloudy nights are warmer, however none of the participants were given the answer.

When asked confidence in knowing the answer, it was found the group who had previously searched online believed they were more knowledgeable.

Researches said the study showed that the cognitive effects of using search engines are so powerful that people still feel smarter even when they didn’t have access to the internet.

“In cases where decisions have big consequences, it could be important for people to distinguish their own knowledge and not assume they know something when they actually don’t,” he said.

“The internet is an enormous benefit in countless ways, but there may be some trade-offs that aren’t immediately obvious and this may be one of them.

“Accurate personal knowledge is difficult to achieve, and the internet may be making that task even harder.”

The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.