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Inspirational Bullshit: The Good, The Bad, And The Vacuous, Esther Abel
Inspirational Bullshit: The Good, The Bad, And The Vacuous, Esther Abel
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
There are myriad methods offered in the “self-help industry” and on social media promising to improve happiness. Some messages are evidence-based, often drawn from positive psychology research, and suggest actions requiring time and effort, while other messages may offer feel-good platitudes that are devoid of meaningful guidance; we label this latter type of content “inspirational bullshit.” Across two manuscripts, we investigate the predictors of liking different kinds of positive self-help content, from meaningless randomly-generated phrases to vacuous positivity to evidence-based advice. In the first manuscript, across three studies, bullshit receptivity (a tendency to judge pseudo-profound statements as profound) and people’s …
The Power Of Dissent: Mitigating False Polarization And Cross-Party Dislike In Online Interactions, Victoria Parker
The Power Of Dissent: Mitigating False Polarization And Cross-Party Dislike In Online Interactions, Victoria Parker
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
While actual polarization is on the rise in the United States, perceived polarization (i.e., false polarization) is growing at an even faster rate, contributing to increased cross-party hostility. A meaningful amount of out-party dislike may be produced by partisans’ dramatic overestimates of the prevalence of extreme, undesirable views among political opponents. In the current research, we examine whether exposing people to out-party dissenters who challenge their copartisans’ extreme views might help reduce people’s misperceptions of their opponents’ extreme views, and possibly mitigate animosity. Across five studies (N = 3789), we explore how seeing public ingroup dissent (in the form of …