A Recipe for BS

Habitual purveyors of bull have little or no regard for evidence: They just repeat what sounds convincing. Yet many of us, at some point or another, will speak up despite having scant knowledge of what we're talking about. Research by psychologist John Petrocelli at Wake Forest University illuminates the factors that could make us more likely to do so.

In two studies, participants were asked to type out their thoughts about either the behavior of a fictional political candidate or policies such as capital punishment and affirmative action. Afterward, they rated how much they had been concerned with evidence for their opinions when they offered them—which, along with the number of thoughts they had given, was used to gauge the degree to which they had engaged in BS.

The respondents tended to show less concern for the evidence when they were required to provide an opinion than when they were told they did not have to do so. And BS-ing was less likely when they were advised that a knowledgeable reader—someone who knew the candidate well or who was an expert on the policy topics—would be assessing their opinions. "People often think that if they can come up with an argument, that's evidence," Petrocelli says. But his findings suggest that when we're in the room (or exchanging comments online) with someone who's equipped to call us out, we may think more critically about what we really know.