The illusion of insight: Detailed warnings reduce but do not prevent false "Aha!" moments

Abstract

False “Aha!” moments can be elicited experimentally using the False Insight Anagram Task (FIAT), which combines semantic priming and visual similarity manipulations to lead participants into having “Aha!” moments for incorrect anagram solutions. In a preregistered experiment (N = 255), we tested whether warning participants and explaining to them exactly how they were being deceived, would reduce their susceptibility to false insights. We found that simple warnings did not reduce the incidence of false insights. On the other hand, participants who were given a detailed explanation of the methods used to deceive them experienced a small reduction in false insights compared to participants given no warning at all. Our findings suggest that the FIAT elicits a robust false insight effect that is hard to overcome, demonstrating the persuasive nature of false insights when the conditions are ripe for them. We discuss the implications of these findings in understanding the spread of propaganda, which may follow a similar logic; wherein flawed past information can bias the interpretation of ambiguous current events.

Insight and the selection of ideas

“…This manipulation lead to participants having far more false insights when the priming was present versus absent (Grimmer et al, 2022a). The finding was also replicated in a second experiment, and several replications and extensions have since been conducted (Grimmer et al, 2022b(Grimmer et al, , 2023. Thus, the accuracy of the feeling of insight can be confounded by exposing the participants to misleading information, effectively breaking the heuristic (i.e., the extent to which past knowledge or context was accurately informing the phenomenology).…”

“…moments and discerning concomitants that distinguish true from false insights. As discussed, Eureka moments are more likely to be accurate if they occur on the heels of accurate information (Grimmer et al, 2023;Grimmer et al, 2022a,b). Disconcertingly, the abundance of fake news may therefore be seeding misleading Aha!s by constructing a knowledgebase that coheres with-increases expected precision of-incorrect ideas.…”