The Feeling of Knowing

We all love being right. We also enjoy knowing why things are the way the are, or why they happened the way they did. It is very uncomfortable not having an explanation.

Thing is... even when we are most convinced, there needs to be some doubt.

In 'Being Wrong', Kathryn Schulz tells the story of a woman in Vienna, Austria. She tell of neurologist Georg Goldenberg doing a simple experiment. He asked the woman to describe his face, and an object that was in front of her. She did this. Easy enough.

Except she was blind.

"To be blind without realizing our blindness is, figuratively, the situation of all of us when we are in error" - Schulz

Before you write this off as just a disease (called anosognosia), she also talks about an extensive 9/11 study where they asked a number of volunteers detailed questions the next day about their whereabouts the day before.

After all, we all have those events where we 'know' exactly where we were, who we were with and how we felt. For me, these include Nelson Mandela's release, Diana's death, the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final :-), the 1999 Cricket World Cup Semi-Final :-(, and 9/11 amongst others.

Turns out, in one study less than 7% could remember the details accurately just 3 years later. 50% were wrong in 2/3rds of the detail and 25% were wrong in every detail. They all thought they remembered perfectly!

So next time you are so certain about something - perhaps a pinch of salt is necessary.