People who frequently mislead others by spouting ‘BS’ are less able to distinguish fact from fiction themselves, a new study reveals.
Canadian experts found people who frequently engage in ‘persuasive bulls**tting’ – defined as deliberately attempting to mislead without lying outright – were poor at identifying it.
The participants were tested with pseudo-scientific statements and fake news headlines, and had trouble distinguishing profound or scientifically accurate fact from the ‘impressive but meaningless fiction’.
Bulls**tters – as the experts frequently call them in their peer-reviewed paper – were also much more likely to fall for fake news headlines, such as ‘Covid-19 found in toilet paper’.
People who frequently engage in ‘persuasive bulls**tting’ – lies intended to impress or persuade others – were poor at identifying it (stock image)
‘It probably seems intuitive to believe that you can’t bulls**t a bulls**tter, but our research suggests that this isn’t actually the case,’ said study author Shane Littrell at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
‘In fact, it appears that the biggest purveyors of persuasive BS are ironically some of the ones most likely to fall for it.’
The study authors wanted to find out whether ‘those who frequently produce ‘BS’ are inoculated from its influence’.
The researchers define BS as ‘information designed to impress, persuade or otherwise mislead people that is often constructed without concern for the truth’.
Bulls**tting is different from lying, as Littrell pointed out to MailOnline.
‘Lying is a deliberate attempt to get someone to believe a falsehood.
‘They know the truth but don’t want you to know it.
‘Bulls**tting is a deliberate attempt to mislead (without outright deceiving) in order to impress, persuade, or fit in.’
The researchers say there are two types of BS – persuasive and evasive.
‘Persuasive’ uses misleading exaggerations and embellishments to impress, persuade or fit in with others.
‘Evasive’ involves giving irrelevant, evasive responses in situations where frankness might result in hurt feelings or reputational harm.
‘Persuasive’ bulls**tting is therefore more deliberate, cynical and arguably less forgivable than ‘evasive’ bulls**tting.
It has been unclear whether those who frequently produce bullsh*t are ‘inoculated from its influence’
Littrell and his two colleagues conducted a series of studies with 826 participants from the US and Canada.
The team tested self-reported engagement in persuasive and evasive bulls**tting and their ratings of how profound, truthful, or accurate they found pseudo-profound and pseudo-scientific statements and fake news headlines.
Participants rated the profundity of 10 randomly generated, grammatically correct, sentences that were constructed from abstract pseudo-profound buzzwords.
One such sentence was ‘We are in the midst of a high‐frequency blossoming of interconnectedness that will give us access to the quantum soup itself!’
Additionally, participants rated 10 items that represent intentionally profound or motivational quotes (such as ‘A river cuts through a rock, not because of its power but its persistence’).
Participants also rated 10 statements that convey actual scientific truths such as ‘In a natural thermodynamic process, the sum of the entropies of the interacting thermodynamic systems increases’.
Finally, the volunteers completed measures of cognitive ability, metacognitive insight, intellectual overconfidence and reflective thinking.
‘Fake news!’ is one of Donald Trump’s favourite phrases. Frequent bulls**tters are much more likely to fall for fake news headlines (file photo)
The results revealed that persuasive bulls**tting was positively related to susceptibility to various types of misleading information.
‘We found that the more frequently someone engages in persuasive bulls**tting, the more likely they are to be duped by various types of misleading information regardless of their cognitive ability, engagement in reflective thinking, or metacognitive skills,’ Littrell said.
‘Persuasive BSers seem to mistake superficial profoundness for actual profoundness.
‘So, if something simply sounds profound, truthful, or accurate to them that means it really is. But evasive BSers were much better at making this distinction.’
The research may help shed light on the processes underlying the spread of some types of misinformation, which is especially proliferating on social media during the pandemic.
The study – delightfully entitled ‘You can’t bulls**t a bulls**tter’ (or can you?): Bulls**tting frequency predicts receptivity to various types of misleading information’ – has been published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.
WHAT ARE THE NINE WAYS TO SPOT A LIAR?
The big pause: Lying is quite a complex process for the body and brain to deal with. First your brain produces the truth which it then has to suppress before inventing the lie and the performance of that lie.
This often leads to a longer pause than normal before answering, plus a verbal stalling technique like ‘Why do you ask that?’ rather than a direct and open response.
The eye dart: Humans have more eye expressions than any other animal and our eyes can give away if we’re trying to hide something.
When we look up to our left to think we’re often accessing recalled memory, but when our eyes roll up to our right we can be thinking more creatively. Also, the guilt of a lie often makes people use an eye contact cut-off gesture, such as looking down or away.
The lost breath: Bending the truth causes an instant stress response in most people, meaning the fight or flight mechanisms are activated.
The mouth dries, the body sweats more, the pulse rate quickens and the rhythm of the breathing changes to shorter, shallower breaths that can often be both seen and heard.
Overcompensating: A liar will often over-perform, both speaking and gesticulating too much in a bid to be more convincing. These over the top body language rituals can involve too much eye contact (often without blinking!) and over-emphatic gesticulation.
The more someone gesticulates, the more likely it is they might be fibbing (stock image)
The poker face: Although some people prefer to employ the poker face, many assume less is more and almost shut down in terms of movement and eye contact when they’re being economical with the truth.
The face hide: When someone tells a lie they often suffer a strong desire to hide their face from their audience. This can lead to a partial cut-off gesture like the well-know nose touch or mouth-cover.
Self-comfort touches: The stress and discomfort of lying often produces gestures that are aimed at comforting the liar, such as rocking, hair-stroking or twiddling or playing with wedding rings. We all tend to use self-comfort gestures but this will increase dramatically when someone is fibbing.
Micro-gestures: These are very small gestures or facial expressions that can flash across the face so quickly they are difficult to see. Experts will often use filmed footage that is then slowed down to pick up on the true body language response emerging in the middle of the performed lie.
The best time to spot these in real life is to look for the facial expression that occurs after the liar has finished speaking. The mouth might skew or the eyes roll in an instant give-away.
Heckling hands: The hardest body parts to act with are the hands or feet and liars often struggle to keep them on-message while they lie.
When the gestures and the words are at odds it’s called incongruent gesticulation and it’s often the hands or feet that are telling the truth.