The Illusion of Explanatory Depth

Another fancy term - euphemism for cognitive misers:

"The Illusion of Explanatory Depth is the observation that people often believe that they understand things better than they do. For example, if you ask people whether they can explain common household objects like zippers, they will say that they can, and then are surprised to discover that there are often big gaps in the explanations they try to generate.

Across a number of studies in this paper (most involving explanations of household objects), they found that when people think about objects specifically, they are better able to judge whether they understand how the object works than when they think about it abstractly. So, your belief about whether you can explain how a zipper works is better if you think specifically about whether you know how the parts of a zipper allow it to function than if you just think generally about whether you understand zippers.

The researchers used a procedure that generally makes people think either specifically about things or abstractly. To get them to think specifically, they asked people to describe how they perform common jobs like washing the dishes. To get them to think abstractly, they asked people to describe why they perform these jobs. Then, they had people rate how well they understood the policy positions of political candidates and how well that matched up with their actual ability to explain those positions.

People who were encouraged to think abstractly showed the Illusion of Explanatory Depth. They were far more confident in their ability to explain a candidate's position than they should have been given their actual ability to explain it. People who were encouraged to think specifically did not show a strong Illusion of Explanatory Depth."