Shane Littrell, Evan F. Risko, & Jonathan A. Fugelsang of the Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada) published an article in the British Journal of Social Psychology (Wiley) titled ‘You can’t bullshit a bullshitter’ (or can you?): Bullshitting frequency predicts receptivity to various types of misleading information (4 February 2021).
From the Abstract:
« It remains unclear whether those who frequently produce bullshit are inoculated from its influence. For example, both bullshit receptivity and bullshitting frequency are negatively related to cognitive ability and aspects of analytic thinking style, suggesting that those who frequently engage in bullshitting may be more likely to fall for bullshit.
However, separate research suggests that individuals who frequently engage in deception are better at detecting it, thus leading to the possibility that frequent bullshitters may be less likely to fall for bullshit.
Here we present three studies (N = 826) attempting to distinguish between these competing hypotheses, finding that frequency of persuasive bullshitting (i.e., bullshitting intended to impress or persuade others) positively predicts susceptibility to various types of misleading information and that this association is robust to individual differences in cognitive ability and analytic cognitive style. »
From the Conclusion:
« Our primary aim was to examine… the associations between the propensity to produce and the tendency to fall for bullshit…Overall, we found that persuasive bullshitters (but not evasive bullshitters) were more receptive to various types of bullshit and, in the case of pseudo-profound statements, even when controlling for factors related to intelligence and analytic thinking. »
From page 5:
Persuasive bullshiting: “intended to impress, persuade, or fit in with others by exaggerating, embellishing, or otherwise stretching the truth about one’s knowledge, ideas, attitudes, skills, or competence”
Evasive bullshitting: “when responding to inquiries where direct answers might incur negative social costs for oneself or others”
Lead author Shane Littrell @MetacogniShane tweeted on Feb 4, 2021:
“BTW, here’s the non-paywalled version of the paper”
Dr. Nico Rose (@DrNicoRose) tweeted at 0:03 PM on Fri, Jul 28, 2023:
“I’ve conducted some research on (perceived) bullshit in organizations over here in Germany. There’s a pretty sizable correlation between the level of (perceived) bullshit and psychological strain (which is believed to be a precursor to burnout).”
H/T to Adam Grant @AdamMGrant who tweeted a link to the article on July 28, 2023:
“The more you bullshit, the more likely you are to fall for other people’s bullshit.
Data: those who exaggerate their expertise to impress others are more vulnerable to misinformation.
When people speak without concern for the truth, they can’t be trusted to recognize the truth.”
See also: On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt (1929-2023). Frankfurt makes a distinction between lying and bullshitting. “It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.”
Articles of Interest 