Depth 1 · 40 s
Draw a bicycle
Score how well you understand a zip, then explain it step by step, and watch the score drop. Asked to draw a bicycle, many people draw one that could never be ridden. The illusion of understanding.
About this video
How well do you understand how a zip works? Give yourself a score from 1 to 7. Now explain, step by step and out loud, what happens inside it when you pull it up. Then score yourself again. Most people start with a 5 or a 6. Then they try to explain how the little teeth lock together, the words run out, and the second score is lower.
In 2002 the psychologists Leonid Rozenblit and Frank Keil asked people the same thing about everyday objects: a zip, a flush toilet, a lock with a key. People scored how well they understood each, then wrote a full step-by-step explanation, then scored themselves again. The second scores were clearly lower. They had been sure because the objects were familiar, but using a thing is not the same as knowing how it works.
In 2006 the psychologist Rebecca Lawson asked people in England to draw a bicycle from memory, by adding the frame, the pedals and the chain to a simple outline. Many of the drawings could never have been ridden: the chain went to the front wheel, or around both wheels, or the frame was fixed to the middle of the front wheel so the handlebars couldn't turn it. People who rode often did better, but many of them got it wrong too.
This feeling of knowing how something works when we don't is called the illusion of understanding, or the illusion of explanatory depth. The mind keeps a sense of "I've got this" instead of the details, which is usually enough, until we have to fix the thing, teach it or argue about it. The habit that helps: explain it out loud, step by step, before saying you understand, and score yourself after explaining, not before. This video shows the idea on Knaph.
This video shows depth 1 of Illusion of understanding.
Learn Illusion of understandingTranscript
- 0:00How well do you understand a zip? Score yourself from one to seven.
- 0:05Now explain it step by step. The words run out, and the score drops.
- 0:11In 2002, scores for a zip, a toilet and a lock all dropped after explaining.
- 0:17Asked to draw a bicycle, people had to add the frame, pedals and chain.
- 0:23Many drew bikes that could never be ridden.
- 0:29So explain it out loud first, and score yourself after.
- 0:35Using a thing isn't knowing how it works.