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People with lower cognitive ability more likely to fall for pseudo-profound bullshit
A new meta-analysis published in Applied Cognitive Psychology offers insight into why some people are more likely than others to be taken in by pseudo-profound statements—sentences that sound deep and meaningful but are essentially meaningless. The study found that receptivity to this type of language is more common among individuals with lower cognitive abilities and greater faith in intuition, and is also linked to stronger belief in the paranormal, conspiracy theories, and religion.
Pseudo-profound bullshit refers to statements that appear meaningful but don’t actually convey any real substance. These phrases are often grammatically correct and filled with abstract, inspirational words, but upon closer examination, they lack any concrete or verifiable content.
For example, the sentence “Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty” might sound insightful, but it doesn’t actually say anything meaningful. The term gained attention after a 2015 study by Gordon Pennycook and colleagues, which found that some people consistently rate such statements as profound—even though they were generated using random buzzwords.
Since then, researchers have become increasingly interested in what makes someone more susceptible to these kinds of statements. In an age of information overload, distinguishing truth from nonsense is more important than ever. Pseudo-profound bullshit may seem harmless on the surface, but it can shape people’s beliefs in ways that promote misinformation, influence political attitudes, and even affect health behaviors.
To better understand who is most likely to fall for pseudo-profound bullshit, the researchers conducted a meta-analysis—a statistical technique that combines the results of multiple studies to identify patterns across a larger body of evidence. They analyzed 46 separate experiments drawn from 26 articles published between 2015 and 2023. The studies included more than 13,600 participants in total, with most of the data coming from Canada and the United States.
All of the included studies used variations of the Bullshit Receptivity Scale, which presents people with meaningless but syntactically correct statements and asks them to rate how profound they find each one. The researchers then looked at how responses on this scale were related to other variables, such as cognitive reflection, verbal intelligence, belief systems, and thinking styles.
The analysis revealed a consistent pattern: people who scored higher in receptivity to pseudo-profound bullshit were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, religious and paranormal claims, and had greater faith in intuition. These individuals also tended to score lower on measures of cognitive reflection, verbal intelligence, and mathematical ability.
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PsyPost: People with lower cognitive ability more likely to fall for pseudo-profound bullshit
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