Item Details

title

Detecting bullshit: The roles of response latency and topic complexity

author

Shang, Xiao

abstract

Bullshitting, defined as communicating with little to no concern for truth, evidence, and/or established knowledge (Frankfurt, 1986), can potentially cause more damage to society than lying. However, very little is known about the strategies or social cues people use to detect bullshit. The current investigation was designed to examine the interactive effect of response latency and topic complexity on socially perceived bullshitting behavior as a useful strategy to detect bullshit. In two experiments, participants were shown a video displaying a text chat that varied the topic complexity (i.e., simple or complex) and response latency (fast/shorter latency or slow/longer latency). Experiment 1 revealed a general social expectation that relatively more complex topics require more time to explain compared to simpler topics. Results of Experiment 2 also suggest that people conjointly adopt response latency and topic complexity as cues to detect bullshit. That is, when the topic is simple, longer latency or slower responses tend to be socially perceived as bullshit; whereas when the topic is complex, shorter latency or faster responses tend to be socially perceived as bullshit. The potential mediation effect of expertise evaluation when making bullshit judgments is also explored.

subject

Bullshit

Bullshitting

Communication

Evidence

Lying

Speed of thoughts

contributor

Petrocelli, John V (committee chair)

Hazen, Michael D (committee member)

Masicampo, E. J. (committee member)

date

2020-05-29T08:36:12Z (accessioned)

2025-06-01T08:30:08Z (available)

2020 (issued)

degree

Psychology (discipline)

embargo

2025-06-01 (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/96857 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis