Interesting Results
Do We Really Know What We Think We Know?
Researchers often want to know how much people know about something. For example, the attitudes and behaviour of people who have greater knowledge about a particular product category such as wine or computers might be different from those of people with less knowledge. Consequently, research participants are often asked to rate their own knowledge. But how closely do those ratings correspond to more objective measures of knowledge?
To find out, researchers re-examined 51 studies published over the past 30 years that included both objective and subjective knowledge measures.1 What they found is that there is a positive correlation between subjective and objective knowledge, but the strength of the relationship varies based on a number of factors. For example, the correlations were stronger for:
- Products versus non products (e.g., services, issues , etc.).
- Durable goods (e.g., cars) versus non durable goods (e.g., toothpaste).
- Publicly observable goods (e.g., a house) versus private goods (e.g., household cleaners).
- Luxuries versus necessities.
1 Carlson, Jay P., Leslie H. Vincent, David. M. Hardesty, and William O. Bearden (2009), “Objective and Subjective Knowledge Relationships: A Quantitative Analysis of Consumer Research Findings”, Journal of Consumer Research, 35(5), 864-876.