Scrolling to wisdom: The impact of social media news exposure on knowledge perception
Federica Ruzzante, Gustavo Cevolani, Folco Panizza · 2025
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Description
Federica Ruzzante, Gustavo Cevolani, and Folco Panizza test whether scrolling news on social media inflates how much people think they know, in a 2025 paper. The illusion of knowledge means overrating your grasp of a topic. If feeds quietly boost confidence without boosting knowledge, public debate suffers.
In a preregistered two-session study, 828 participants scrolled a social media news feed, then rated both their felt knowledge and their real knowledge. Felt knowledge rose over time in general, but exposed topics did not clearly outgain untouched ones. Even so, a strong illusion of knowledge appeared across all topics, a high baseline that may have masked feed effects. The authors discuss test effects and shallow engagement as possible culprits.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Federica Ruzzante, Gustavo Cevolani, Folco Panizza |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 29 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |