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Recently, researchers asked more than 2,000 American and European adults their thoughts about genetically modified foods.

They also asked them how much they thought they understood about GM foods, and a series of 15 true-false questions to test how much they actually knew about genetics and science in general.

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The researchers were interested in studying a perverse human phenomenon: People tend to be lousy judges of how much they know.

Across four studies conducted in three countries — the U.S., France and Germany — the researchers found that extreme opponents of genetically modified foods “display a lack of insight into how much they know.” They know the least, but think they know the most.

“The less people know,” the authors conclude, “the more opposed they are to the scientific consensus.”

“Science communicators have made concerted efforts to educate the public with an eye to bringing their attitudes in line with the experts,” they write in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.