The Distinctive Characteristics of Bullshit: Intention, Meaningfulness, and Source Reliability

The pseudo-profound bullshit pertains to meaningless statements made to impress. Because of the disparity between philosophical and psychological approaches to bullshit, there is a lack of empirical proof supporting its features. The aim of the study was thus to test if those are indeed the distinctive characteristics of bullshit and if they influence the proneness to evaluate bullshit as profound. Further, because context shapes bullshit receptivity second aim was to investigate if features of bullshit influence the changes in bullshit receptivity due to varied reliability of an added source. Results indicate that participants recognize meaninglessness as well as intention to impress in different categories of statements. Further, intention to impress provokes greater changes in profoundness evaluations than statement meaningfulness. Finally, both reliable and unreliable sources affect profoundness ratings and the effects were present in all categories of statements.