Bullshit-sensitivity predicts prosocial behavior

People who honestly believe a lie can convincingly tell it.

Analogously, people who don't get tripped up by bullshit might be better (more convincing) at spouting self-serving bullshit.

Framed that way, I can believe it.

I think you can be extremely apt at detecting bullshit without being a cynic. In fact I think a lot, though certainly not all, of cynicism stems from the disappointment of having been fooled too much by bullshit.

> assessed participants’ bullshit-receptivity

Deriving meaning from what others deem meaningless could be profound in itself?

> Despite bullshit-receptivity and profoundness-receptivity being positively correlated with each other, logistic regression analyses showed that profoundness-receptivity had a positive association whereas bullshit-receptivity had a negative association with both types of prosocial behavior.

Not surprising. People incapable of differentiating objectivity from self-satisfying statements are less likely predict anything objectively.

Whereas...

> The results suggest that people who are better at distinguishing the pseudo-profound from the actually profound are more prosocial.

People who are objective are better able to analyze social contexts.

I further suspect objective people are already aware of this and self-satisfying people are not aware there is any difference.

A simple self-experiment if you haven't read the paper, find which of these sentences are bullshit. Answer in order without reading further ahead, and don't go back to change your answers (as to replicate experimental conditions).

*

1. A river cuts through a rock, not because of its power but it's persistence.

2. The hidden meaning transforms the abstract beauty.

3. The future elucidates irrational facts for the seeking person.

4. You are not only responsible for the things you say, but also for the things that you do not say.

5. Health and tolerance provides creativity for the future.

6. We have other flaws before our eyes, but our own flaws behind our back.

7. Your teacher can open the door, but you have to step in.

8. Your movement transforms universal observations.

9. The person who never made a mistake never tried something new.

10. The whole silence infinite phenomena.

11. Imagined pain does not hurt less because it is imagined.

12. The invisible is beyond all new immutability.

13. The unexplainable touches on the inherent experiences of the universe.

14. It is one thing to be tempted, but quite another to fall for the temptation.

*

Here are the answers for self-assessment: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=l...

No claim is made on the validity of the experiment (the researchers' or your own). Proposed in the name of curiosity!