Internet searches are convincing us we’re smarter than we really are

Is Google creating the next generation of office blowhards? A clever psychological study by Yale University researchers suggests the answer is yes. It seems that as we look things up on the Web, we become convinced that the information remains in our brains. It doesn't. But we behave as if it does, and we're not shy about claiming that it's there. "This huge database is leading people to believe this information is in their heads, when in fact it’s not," Matthew Fisher, the Yale graduate psychology student who led the study, said. Is that a bad thing? Merely an annoyance? Or no harm at all? It depends on whom you ask. Fisher's paper, published online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, concludes that by "erroneously situating external knowledge within their own heads, people may unwittingly exaggerate how much intellectual work they can do in situations where they are truly on their own."