Google Effect
We tend to forget information that is easily looked up using internet search engines.
The Google effect (also called digital amnesia) is the tendency to forget information that can be easily found online using internet search engines such as Google. Rather than committing the information to memory, people instead remember how to look it up. Betsy Sparrow's 2011 research found that people shown facts and told they could save them used less cognitive effort to remember them.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Everyday life Phone Number Forgetting People who stored all contacts in smartphones can no longer recall phone numbers they used to know by heart.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
After a meeting, a colleague couldn't remember who was assigned which task. Instead of asking, he decided to check the project management software later.
A friend asks for the recipe for a dish you made last Thanksgiving. You found it online then, but you don't try to remember the ingredients. You say, 'Let me text you the link I used.'
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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