Individual differences in receptivity to scientific bullshit

Anthony Evans; Willem Sleegers; Žan Mlakar

Individual differences in receptivity to scientific bullshit

Anthony Evans^*, Willem Sleegers, Žan Mlakar

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Social Psychology

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Abstract

Pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity is the tendency to perceive meaning in important-sounding, nonsense statements. To understand how bullshit receptivity differs across domains, we develop a scale to measure scientific bullshit receptivity — the tendency to perceive truthfulness in nonsensical scientific statements. Across three studies (total N = 1,948), scientific
bullshit receptivity was positively correlated with pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity. Both types of bullshit receptivity were positively correlated with belief in science, conservative political beliefs, and faith in intuition. However, compared to pseudoprofound bullshit receptivity, scientific bullshit receptivity was more strongly correlated with belief in science, and less strongly
correlated with conservative political beliefs and faith in intuition. Finally, scientific literacy moderated the relationship the two types of bullshit receptivity; the correlation between the two types of receptivity was weaker for individuals scoring high in scientific literacy.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	401-412
Journal	Judgment and Decision Making
Volume	15
Issue number	3
Publication status	Published - 2020

Keywords

bullshit receptivity
false beliefs
motivated reasoning
belief in science

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Replication data for: Individual differences in receptivity to scientific bullshit
Evans, A. (Creator), Sleegers, W. (Creator) & Mlakar, Z. (Creator), DataverseNL, 27 Jan 2021
DOI: 10.34894/cnvrms
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Cite this

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title = "Individual differences in receptivity to scientific bullshit",

abstract = "Pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity is the tendency to perceive meaning in important-sounding, nonsense statements. To understand how bullshit receptivity differs across domains, we develop a scale to measure scientific bullshit receptivity — the tendency to perceive truthfulness in nonsensical scientific statements. Across three studies (total N = 1,948), scientificbullshit receptivity was positively correlated with pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity. Both types of bullshit receptivity were positively correlated with belief in science, conservative political beliefs, and faith in intuition. However, compared to pseudoprofound bullshit receptivity, scientific bullshit receptivity was more strongly correlated with belief in science, and less stronglycorrelated with conservative political beliefs and faith in intuition. Finally, scientific literacy moderated the relationship the two types of bullshit receptivity; the correlation between the two types of receptivity was weaker for individuals scoring high in scientific literacy.",

keywords = "bullshit receptivity, false beliefs, motivated reasoning, belief in science",

author = "Anthony Evans and Willem Sleegers and {\v Z}an Mlakar",

note = "Funding information Federal State Government of North-Rhine Westphalia, Grant/Award Number:Nachwuchsforschungsgruppe NRW 005-1503-0007 ",

year = "2020",

language = "English",

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AU - Sleegers, Willem

AU - Mlakar, Žan

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PY - 2020

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KW - false beliefs

KW - motivated reasoning

KW - belief in science

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SP - 401

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JO - Judgment and Decision Making

JF - Judgment and Decision Making

SN - 1930-2975

IS - 3

ER -

Individual differences in receptivity to scientific bullshit

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