Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Situational Factors Influencing Receptivity To Bullshit, Mitch Brown, Lucas A. Keefer, Shelby J. Mcgrew

Faculty Publications

Individuals are motivated to maintain a sense of meaning, and enact cognitive processes to do so (e.g., perceiving structure in the environment). This motivation to find meaning may ultimately impact humans’ interpretation of "bullshit", statements intended to convey profundity without any meaning. Conversely, subtle cues threatening the meaningfulness of bullshit may elicit greater skepticism. Three studies tested situational factors predicted to heighten or diminish susceptibility to bullshit by changing motivations to seek meaning. We employed diverse methods including symbolic meaning threat (Study 1), social exclusion (Cyberball; Study 2), and manipulating cognitive fluency (Study 3). Taken together, the results indicate basic …

Decisions, Decisions: Review Of Mindware: Tools For Smart Thinking By Richard E. Nisbett, Anne Kelly

Numeracy

Richard Nisbett. 2015. Mindware: Tools for Smart Thinking. (New York, NY: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux). 336 pp. ISBN: 9780374536244.

Social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett provides help in identifying and overcoming faulty cognitive strategies and replacing them with more accurate heuristics. To do so, Nisbett draws from statistics, correlation, experiments, differences in Western and Eastern thought, and, especially, social influence.