The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, focused on people who profess "belief superiority" -- or thinking their views are superior to other viewpoints -- as it relates to political issues.

Several studies were used for the research. Across six studies and several political topics, people who were high in belief superiority thought that they knew a great deal about these topics.

However, when comparing this perceived knowledge to how much people actually knew, the researchers found that belief-superior people were consistently overestimating their own knowledge.

"Whereas more humble participants sometimes even underestimated their knowledge, the belief superior tended to think they knew a lot more than they actually did," said the study's lead author Michael Hall from University of Michigan

Read the full article at The Economic Times.