Search engines make us consider ourselves smarter than we really are.

Many search engines such as Google or Yahoo! make people think that they are smarter than they really are. Psychologists from Yale University (USA) have discovered that this is because people are just superficially acquainted with the information.

A search on the Internet gives inaccurate information, but a person begins to believe that he already has more than enough knowledge, scientists warn.

A number of experiments were conducted, which showed that Internet users considered themselves to be more understanding of the task than those who gathered information from other sources, for example, from a book or directly from an expert.

Psychology professor Frank Keil, of Yale University, says research has shown that the search mode effect on the Internet was so strong that people continued to believe in their own knowledge, even if their knowledge turned out to be incorrect.

"With the Internet, the lines between what you know and what you think you know are becoming blurred," said university lead researcher Matthew Fisher.

Researchers also believe that exaggerating personal knowledge can also be dangerous in the political sphere and other areas related to the high importance of the decisions made.

Experts point out that the growing popularity of smartphones can also exacerbate the problem, because in this way searching on the web is always within reach of humans.