A recent New York Times article discussed research about a psychological idea called “the illusion of explanatory depth,” as described by Yale psychologist Frank Keil. Related studies asked participants to give detailed descriptions of frequently cited political ideas like “flat tax” and “sanctions on Iran,” and found that while most people believe they understand these ideas, their real understanding of these terms is often simplistic or superficial. The results indicate that most people do not realize the limits of their knowledge until they consciously reflect upon and evaluate it.

And interestingly enough, the process of trying to explain a complex political concept seems to have the capability to actually modify people’s political views. In the study, people became more moderate in their political ideologies when forced to work through an explanation of them.

This research could be valuable in augmenting our knowledge of how the public perceives and uses political information. It suggests that many people are not particularly well-versed on the political issues they will likely consider while voting even though access to information through online news sources and social media, for example, should theoretically make it easy for the average person to be informed on even advanced political topics.

An issue that might affect this phenomenon is the tendency of people to seek out parties’ and candidates’ stances on issues rather than researching the issues themselves. Accordingly, they often receive a biased portrait of these issues based on their sources of information and the candidates’ own stances.

It is difficult to find a simple solution to better educate the entire voting public about the intricacies of complex political issues. However, part of the solution clearly depends on individuals’ decisions to confront their own ideologies and seek out better information. This could be particularly relevant to students at Pitt because the intellectual exploration that most people engage in at college makes it an ideal time to reflect on political issues. We also think that students could benefit from taking classes on issues they find important — like economics or political science — to give them a more thorough understanding of social and political issues.

Also, students, as well as news consumers in general, would undoubtedly benefit from critically analyzing their sources of information. It’s important to consciously reflect on the content and bias of political information, especially when political articles are candidate-based rather than issue-based. Students should seek out a well-balanced array of information — for example, issue-based magazine articles and books, as well as newspaper articles that describe candidates’ stances on these issues. We hope that pursuing a wide variety of information and consciously reflecting on it will lead students toward having more nuanced political knowledge to draw upon, especially when considering candidates running for public office.