Knowing an answer and presenting an answer are markedly different attributes

A few days ago I posted Caustic but not necessarily wrong in which I explored some findings he had reported in Does higher education change non-cognitive skills? by Tyler Cowen.

I expressed doubt about the research itself and then called into question the practical results of the theoretical good intentions of the researchers.

There is another aspect to the post which is interesting and which I did not address.

I had pointed out that the researchers, apparently unconsciously, were focusing on social norms of academia and I pointed out in my post that that is not the same thing in any fashion as domain knowledge. And domain knowledge is what I want to explore here.

The very first comment to Cowen's post is from Steve Sailer:

The notion that going to college is likely to make you more socially suave seems highly plausible.

The less educated tend to be worried that their lack of education will be exposed, while the better educated tend to assume that what they don't know isn't worth knowing.

The classic video, "Private Universe," in which Harvard students and local blue collar young people are asked to explain why there are seasons is informative. The people in the video all give the same wrong answer -- because the Earth is further from the Sun in winter -- but the Harvard kids are extremely confident and extraverted about their wrong answers while the blue collar kids are halting and ashamed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrXaQu_qGeo

One of the pleasant things about Marginal Revolution is the quality of the commenters. Sure, Cowen and Tabarrok have interesting posts, but some of the greatest insights are from their knowledgeable and experienced commenters.

I think Sailer's fundamental point is well taken. Knowing the answer is different from how well and convincingly you present what you think you know. College is supposed to prepare you to know the answer (domain knowledge). To a greater extent than we are comfortable acknowledging, it often appears that what college actually does is make you confident and effective at presenting the answer, whether or not the answer is correct. This is not domain knowledge but social norms knowledge.

It is interesting to see the debate in the comments about the Harvard University video. The claim in the video is that Harvard grads and high school students have the same flawed knowledge of why there are seasons (summer and winter) but the Harvard grads present the same flawed answer knowledge with confidence and gusto whereas the high school students are tentative and uncertain. Fair enough.

But the very smart commenters then have a heated debate about the domain knowledge issue - why are there seasons. It is an interesting debate, it introduces new facts, there is nuance. And it doesn't get to a clear answer.

But it does, to my mind, illustrate the clear difference between knowing an answer (domain knowledge) and presenting an answer (social norms).