Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2021 Jan;60(1):248-270. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12379. Epub 2020 Apr 18.
Recent psychological research has identified important individual differences associated with receptivity to bullshit, which has greatly enhanced our understanding of the processes behind susceptibility to pseudo-profound or otherwise misleading information. However, the bulk of this research attention has focused on cognitive and dispositional factors related to bullshit (the product), while largely overlooking the influences behind bullshitting (the act). Here, we present results from four studies focusing on the construction and validation of a new, reliable scale measuring the frequency with which individuals engage in two types of bullshitting (persuasive and evasive) in everyday situations. Overall, bullshitting frequency was negatively associated with sincerity, honesty, cognitive ability, open-minded cognition, and self-regard. Additionally, the Bullshitting Frequency Scale was found to reliably measure constructs that are (1) distinct from lying and (2) significantly related to performance on overclaiming and social decision tasks. These results represent an important step forward by demonstrating the utility of the Bullshitting Frequency Scale as well as highlighting certain individual differences that may play important roles in the extent to which individuals engage in everyday bullshitting.
最近的心理学研究已经确定了与接受胡扯相关的重要个体差异，这极大地增强了我们对易受虚假深奥或其他误导性信息影响背后的过程的理解。然而，大部分研究关注的是与胡扯（产品）相关的认知和性格因素，而在很大程度上忽略了胡扯（行为）背后的影响。在这里，我们展示了四项研究的结果，这些研究集中于构建和验证一个新的、可靠的量表，用于衡量个体在日常情况下进行两种类型的胡扯（说服性和逃避性）的频率。总体而言，胡扯的频率与真诚、诚实、认知能力、开放认知和自我尊重呈负相关。此外，还发现胡扯频率量表能够可靠地衡量与（1）说谎不同和（2）与夸大和社会决策任务的表现显著相关的结构。这些结果代表了向前迈出的重要一步，证明了胡扯频率量表的实用性，并强调了某些个体差异可能在个体参与日常胡扯的程度上发挥重要作用。
