Caveat Amateur

Be wary of trusting a self-proclaimed expert. A paper in the journal Psychological Science reports that the more knowledgeable subjects thought they were about personal finance, the more likely they were to claim familiarity with made-up financial terms that were mixed into a list of real ones. The finding was replicated in other domains, including biology and philosophy, and it occurred even if participants were forewarned that fake terms would be included.

Q: Which of these terms do you know? (Note: Half are completely made up.)

Finance
1. fixed-rate deduction
2. private equity fund
3. annualized credit
4. vesting
5. fixed-rate mortgage
6. pre-rated stocks

Real= 2, 4, 5 Fake= 1, 3

Biology
1. meta-toxins
2. sciatica
3. mammalian
4. bio-sexual
5. retroplex
6. adrenal gland

Real= 2, 3, 6 Fake= 1, 4, 5

Philosophy
1. Utilitarianism
2. default consideration
3. Bolvinism
4. ad hominem
5. far-out projection
6. Anti-realism

Real= 1, 4, 6 Fake= 2, 3, 5

_{Finance and biology terms from Psychological Science, August 2015}