On Bullshit

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I think this should go here, though maybe the politics forum is more apt: On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit (PDF). From Petra no less!

Yes, it’s real. File under Dunning-Kruger perhaps?

Abstract:

Although bullshit is common in everyday life and has attracted attention from philosophers, its reception (critical or ingen- uous) has not, to our knowledge, been subject to empirical investigation. Here we focus on pseudo-profound bullshit, which consists of seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous. We presented participants with bullshit statements consisting of buzzwords randomly organized into statements with syntactic structure but no discernible meaning (e.g., “Wholeness quiets infinite phenomena&#8221 . Across multiple studies, the propensity to judge bull- shit statements as profound was associated with a variety of conceptually relevant variables (e.g., intuitive cognitive style, supernatural belief). Parallel associations were less evident among profundity judgments for more conventionally profound (e.g., “A wet person does not fear the rain&#8221 or mundane (e.g., “Newborn babies require constant attention&#8221 statements. These results support the idea that some people are more receptive to this type of bullshit and that detecting it is not merely a matter of indiscriminate skepticism but rather a discernment of deceptive vagueness in otherwise impressive sounding claims. Our re- sults also suggest that a bias toward accepting statements as true may be an important component of pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity.

[Rie]

Yessir! But always watch the eyes... as looong words can mesmerise if need be.