New study suggests you can bullshit some bullshitters

“Not being able to tell a stale fact from persuasive fiction means that the amount of bullshit being spread by the bullshitter is potentially a lot more than they even realize. Bullshitting is a strategic attempt to impress, persuade, or otherwise fit in better with others by misleading them in some way. Bullshitters do it in situations where they think it will gain some advantage and they can get away with it. But if they’re spreading bullshit even when they’re not trying to mislead others – because they actually believe it – then there’s a much higher chance that they will lose whatever strategic advantage that bullshitting might have provided, because fewer people will take them seriously.”

Challenging the popular maxim “you can’t bullshit a bullshitter,” Littrell and colleagues found that persuasive (but not evasive) bullshitters were more receptive to bullshit, even when controlling for various cognitive predictors (i.e., intelligence, analytic thinking).