What Happens When Experts Over- or Underestimate a Layperson’s Knowledge

To communicate effectively with laypersons, experts must take into account the knowledge of their communication partner. Although prior research has shown that experts tend to overor underestimate laypersons’ knowledge, little is known about the particular impact of such overand underestimations on communication. Particularly, in computer-mediated communication where feedback is limited, experts’ false assumptions about a layperson’s knowledge might cause serious miscommunication. To address this issue, we conducted a dialogue experiment, in which we induced systematic overand underestimations of laypersons’ knowledge and analyzed their influence on communication outcomes. Results showed that laypersons’ learning from experts’ explanations was impaired when experts had biased estimates of laypersons’ knowledge. Depending on whether laypersons were overor underestimated, we found a differential impact on the kind of questions they asked. Laypersons whose knowledge was underestimated primarily asked for additional information previously not addressed in the experts’ explanations. Laypersons whose knowledge was overestimated more often asked comprehension questions. Although laypersons overall engaged in question asking, they could not compensate for the communication problems caused by experts’ miscalculations.