How 'armchair experts' are ruining friendships and communication

A 46-year-old male client says that he feels a sense of discomfort and disconnection with some of his close friends. “Many of our conversations end with these friends quoting something they read on AI while doing research or watched on social media. It frustrates me how confident and definitive my friends are about workouts, the amount of daily protein needed, or explaining how a particular probiotic works for the body. Everyone seems to be an expert on every topic.”

This is a a theme that has appeared in therapy multiple times over the last year. Clients have discussed this in the context of increased misinformation, misinformed confidence and competence regarding understanding how the world works. This is reflected when people discuss global politics, the science of therapy, nutrition, ageing, healthcare and many other areas of life.

What we are witnessing with the rise of technology and AI can be understood by the concept of the illusion of explanatory depth (IOED), a term coined by psychologists Leonid Rozenblit and Frank Keil in a 2002 paper titled, The Misunderstood Limits of Folk Science: An Illusion of Explanatory Depth. “People feel they understand complex phenomena with far greater precision, coherence, and depth than they really do; they are subject to an illusion—an illusion of explanatory depth,” the psychologists say.

Simply put, this can be understood as a cognitive shortcut or a misinformed belief where people think their understanding of certain concepts is deeper than it actually is. A series of experiments over the years has shown that when people are asked to explain in detail how phenomena work, most recognise the information they possess is often surface-level and they overestimated their understanding.

I witness this too. When clients enter therapy conversations and use terms like “trauma bond” or “narcissism” or talk about therapy styles and modalities, I recognise how social media has expanded people’s vocabulary. This has come at the cost of an illusion of confidence in their understanding of what is happening in their lives. This approach misses out the nuances, leads to a culture of labelling others and moves us away from exploration in therapy.

According to a scientist friend, this illusion of explanatory depth is visible when people try to explain mechanisms step-by-step, such as how an air purifier works or even climate change.

It helps to understand and remember that we are all vulnerable to IOED. The awareness of the term and how it manifests can help us catch ourselves when we demonstrate it or fall prey to it on social media, when we see armchair experts offer information that isn’t supported by research or credible sources.

IOED leads to misinformation and rigidity in opinions, which are presented as “truths”, resulting in communication breakdowns in friendships or intimate relationships. I have personally observed that it impacts our capacity for exploration. This leads to overconfidence in understanding complex phenomena, which dilutes the grasp of details and consequently leads to misinformation. Our capacity for critical thinking and openness is getting compromised.

The antidote is learning to operate from a place of curiosity. It means building the capacity to accept when we don’t understand something well. It’s also important to acknowledge that we can’t have an in-depth understanding of all possible concepts, and then accept that and remain open to listening when experts discuss them. As we become more cognisant of IOED, I hope we will improve how we consume information online: pausing more, filtering information before accepting it, and remaining open to diverse views when engaging with friends and loved ones.

Sonali Gupta is a Mumbai-based psychotherapist and author.