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Using the Nested Structure of Knowledge to Infer What Others Know.

Edgar Dubourg1, Thomas Dheilly1, Hugo Mercier1

  • 1Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'Études Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Université PSL, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

Psychological Science
|May 29, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

People can accurately infer others' knowledgeability by assessing the rarity of their information. Knowing a rare fact suggests broader expertise, even with limited data.

Keywords:
advice takingexpertiseknowledge attributionnestednesssocial learning

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Information Science

Background:

  • Humans often rely on others for information acquisition.
  • Identifying knowledgeable individuals is challenging, especially when one lacks knowledge.
  • Existing models do not fully explain how knowledgeability is inferred from limited cues.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the nested structure of human knowledge.
  • To determine if knowledgeability can be reliably inferred from minimal information.
  • To explore the role of knowledge rarity in assessing expertise.

Main Methods:

  • Survey of 848 U.S. adults recruited online.
  • Analysis of participants' ability to gauge others' knowledge based on limited information.
  • Examination of the relationship between knowledge rarity and perceived expertise.

Main Results:

  • Individuals can accurately estimate others' knowledgeability using minimal cues.
  • The rarity of a piece of information serves as a reliable indicator of an individual's overall knowledge.
  • Even those with limited knowledge in a theme can infer others' expertise from a single piece of information.

Conclusions:

  • Human knowledge exhibits a nested structure, with common knowledge held broadly and rare knowledge by experts.
  • The rarity of information is a key factor in inferring an individual's knowledgeability.
  • This nested knowledge structure provides a mechanism for efficient information seeking and social learning.