As with bullshitting, sometimes lying is actually incentivized and rewarded within social interactions.
By way of analogy, while we often categorize people as “liars,” the reality is that we all lie under certain circumstances and to various degrees. When it comes to bullshit, we also might use persuasive bullshit and evasive bullshit in varying degrees. When we talk about psychological propensities like “bullshitting,” it’s best not to think of it in terms of “types of people.” The reality is that we all have some propensity to bullshit and we all have some propensity for bullshit receptivity, with individual differences existing quantitatively rather than qualitatively. Likewise, the propensity for persuasive bullshitting was associated with lower cognitive ability, analytical thinking, and intelligence, whereas the propensity for evasive bullshitting was associated with greater cognitive ability.Ĭan understanding the type of people who spread and believe misinformation and BS help to understand the processes underlying the spread of some types of misinformation? Evasive bullshitting, by contrast, was not positively correlated with pseudoprofound bullshit receptivity-in fact, there was an inverse or negative correlation between greater ratings of evasive bullshitting associated and lower ratings of bullshit receptivity. The investigators then sought to examine two different types of bullshitting: “persuasive bullshitting” intended to “impress, persuade, of fit in with others by exaggerating, embellishing, or otherwise stretching the truth about one’s knowledge, ideas, attitudes, skills, or competence” and “evasive bullshitting,” used “when responding to inquiries where direct answers might incur negative social costs for oneself or others.” They found that only persuasive bullshitting was correlated with bullshit receptivity or “pseudoprofound bullshit” receptivity (vulnerability to “seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous” as measured by the BSR), but also “scientific bullshit receptivity,” and susceptibility to fake news as measured by other scales. That’s where their research gets interesting. Do you think those who bullshit (spread misinformation) are more prone to believing bullshit themselves?
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