Are you bullshitting me?: detecting pseudo-profound bullshit in a decision-making task
LE3 .A278 2018
2018
Mehta, Rick
Acadia University
Bachelor of Science
Honours
Psychology
The concept of bullshit (BS) has long been discussed by philosophers, but only recently has BS received attention from the scientific community. Thus far, only correlational research has been conducted, revealing that a variety of relationships exist between BS detection and cognitive variables. The first goal of current study was not only to confirm these relationships, but was also to explore novel associations. The second goal was to better understand how dual information processing theories are involved in the decision-making task of detecting BS by including experimental manipulation of context based cues. Lastly, it was of interest to confirm the validity of the recently developed Bullshit Receptivity Scale. Two-hundred and fifty-six students at Acadia University completed an online survey that assessed ability to detect BS statements under different conditions and measured various cognitive and personality factors. Correlation results confirmed previously studied relationships between variables and BS detection ability items, with cognitive reflection and verbal ability having the strongest correlations. ANOVA showed that BS detection could not be influenced by context cues, indicating that activation of each dual-information processing system could not be altered. The validity of the BSR was also supported. Future research is necessary in a variety of areas to confirm the psychological presence of BS.
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:2680