Jordan Hitchens
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Terri Conley
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology / LSA
Program: UROP
Session: Session 7 (4:40pm – 5:30pm)
Authors:
Abstract
Information Overload is a study aimed at determining if overwhelming amounts of information induce a state of nescience in individuals. Nescience, in the context of this study, refers to the belief that there is no absolute truth, or that truth is relative. This project uses an experimentation study design to address the impact of being overwhelmed by variables such as intellectual humility or disbelief in truth. The study included two subsets of participants, the experimental group was randomly assigned to read a long list of news articles covering the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination in 15 minutes, whereas the control group was asked to read from a much shorter list of articles on the same topic. Both groups were then asked to complete a survey about the readings, the answers to which were used to compare against a verified nescience scale. Statistically significant differences indicate that the experimental group ranked higher in overall nescience after reading the articles when compared to the control group. The implications of these results imply the amount of information affects the ways in which individuals view the concept of truth. This can be applied to future subjects looking at nescience on a broader scale such as within the sociopolitical climate.
