Jin Shi
Pronouns: He/His/Him
Research Mentor(s): Terri Conley
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology / LSA
Program: UROP
Session: Session 7 (4:40pm – 5:30pm)
Authors: Terri Conley, Rachel Klein, Jin Shi
Abstract
This project investigates the effect of nescience. Nescience refers to the belief that there is no objective truth or that the concept of truth is unknowable in nature. Previous research suggests the amount of information presented may affect our ability to identify if it is true or false. Studies found that the belief that there is no objective truth is associated with negative outcomes. The study seeks to experimentally investigate if information overload makes people feel like there is no truth or if the truth is unknowable. This study sets two different conditions, information overload condition, and easy-reading condition. Participants are randomly assigned to each condition to read health-related articles about COVID, and respond to a survey after. The results of the 217 participants collected in the first semester were analyzed, and the result of the data indicated the information overload group was higher in nescience. The first stage experiment provided evidence that overload information will impact the cognition of information and objective facts. This result shows that the ability of human beings to process information will change with the overload of information. In the first phase of the experiment, some participants had subjective problems, such as the processing ability of different subjects brought by different majors and the objectiveness of the experimental settings. Issues such as the method of collecting participant results still leave room for improvement. For the experimental data, a new round of collection can still be carried out for more accurate and reasonable certification.
