> ... the claim, then, is that the smarter you are, the more false assumptions you hold ...
I disagree, the claim wasn't that smart people are wrong more often. But that smart people, even when they are wrong, are too good at rationalizing their wrongness to ever realize they were wrong in the first place.
Not recognizing you are wrong and heading down the wrong path is a sign of a lack of experience. Experience is what teaches you how to recognize 'wrongness' whether the reason for not recognizing it is rationalization or obtuseness doesn't matter. And a smart person would learn the lessons of this faster and thus suffer from it less in the long run.
I disagree, the claim wasn't that smart people are wrong more often. But that smart people, even when they are wrong, are too good at rationalizing their wrongness to ever realize they were wrong in the first place.