The distinctive characteristics of bullshit: intention, meaningfulness, and source reliability

Abstract

Do we make a stronger impression by using big words or by articulating ourselves clearly? The deceptive strategy of using complicated and obscure words to create an impression of competence results in so-called bullshiti.e. something that may sound right and inspiring while in fact being nonsense. In this study our main aim was to examine whether impressiveness (measured by likeability) of a statement is better predicted by truthfulness or comprehensibility of a given statement. 234 students (80.1 % women) rated 4 different forms (created by manipulating their obscureness and truthfulness) of the set of statements and the results showed that likeability was predicted by both perceived truthfulness and comprehensibility. It suggests that impressiveness is attained not by use of obscure language, but rather by perceived truthfulness and comprehensibility by the recipient.