Australia; New Zealand; NSW
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.
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