Hoogeveen et al, Nature Human Behaviour

'Pseudo-profound bullsh*t' seems more credible if we think it comes from a scientist

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Australian and NZ scientists have shown that people find 'pseudo-profound bullshit' statements more credible if they are credited to a scientist rather than a spiritual guru. The researchers generated the statements using the New Age Bullshit Generator which combines new-age buzzwords into meaningless statements that sound profound. They found gobbledegook from a scientist was considered more credible than the same gobbledegook from a spiritual guru, across 24 countries and all levels of religious belief, something they dubbed the 'Einstein effect'. They also found that the credibility gap between the scientist and the guru was smaller for people who were more religious. The authors say their results strongly suggest that scientific authority is generally considered a reliable source for truth, more so than spiritual authority.

Journal/conference: Nature Human Behaviour

Link to research (DOI): 10.1038/s41562-021-01273-8

Organisation/s: Macquarie University, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Funder: This work was supported by funds from the Templeton Foundation (grant number 60663) to M.v.E., the Cogito Foundation (grant number R10917) to R.Mc.K., the Australian Research Council (grant number DP180102384) to N.L. and R.M.R., Templeton Religion Trust (reference TRT0196) to J.A.B., and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (reference 17-EURE-0017 FrontCog and 10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL) to S.A. The analysis was carried out on the Dutch national e-infrastructure with the support of SURF Cooperative.

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Statement in English used to test credibility

Gobbledegook statement credited to scientist

File size: 645.0 KB

Attribution: Hoogeveen et al and New Age Bullshit Generator

Permission category: © - Only use with this story

Last modified: 08 Feb 2022 3:03am

NOTE: High resolution files can only be downloaded here by registered journalists who are logged in.
Statement in English used to test credibility

Gobbledygook statement credited to spiritual guru

File size: 839.3 KB

Attribution: Hoogeveen et al and New Age Bullshit Generator

Permission category: © - Only use with this story

Last modified: 08 Feb 2022 3:03am

NOTE: High resolution files can only be downloaded here by registered journalists who are logged in.
Statement in English used to test credibility

Gobbledygook statement credited to scientist

File size: 646.6 KB

Attribution: Hoogeveen et al and New Age Bullshit Generator

Permission category: © - Only use with this story

Last modified: 08 Feb 2022 3:03am

NOTE: High resolution files can only be downloaded here by registered journalists who are logged in.

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