Bullshit Ability as an Honest Signal of Intelligence

[Klaralven]

Navigating social systems efficiently is critical to our species. Humans appear endowed with a cognitive system that has formed to meet the unique challenges that emerge for highly social species. Bullshitting, communication characterised by an intent to be convincing or impressive without concern for truth, is ubiquitous within human societies. Across two studies (N = 1,017), we assess participants’ ability to produce satisfying and seemingly accurate bullshit as an honest signal of their intelligence. We find that bullshit ability is associated with an individual’s intelligence and individuals capable of producing more satisfying bullshit are judged by second-hand observers to be more intelligent. We interpret these results as adding evidence for intelligence being geared towards the navigation of social systems. The ability to produce satisfying bullshit may serve to assist individuals in negotiating their social world, both as an energetically efficient strategy for impressing others and as an honest signal of intelligence.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14747049211000317

[Hugin]

1. My goal in life...

"individual capable of producing more satisfying bullshit"

With only actual bulls doing better.

[5X]

2. I'm about halfway through an excellent book on the subjuct:

The Truth About Lies by Aja Raden.

Good read.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. That's interesting.

I wonder how people on the autism spectrum would do in that study. Not well, I suppose.

I have a son on the spectrum. It can be VERY hard to stop him from saying something hurtful to someone, simply because he has no clue about "little white lies" or the necessity of not saying something, or saying something polite. I have a feeling he would be totally unable to bullshit. And he's pretty much the smartest person I've ever known. Me? I'm reasonably smart and I can generally b.s. with the best of them.

[Klaralven]

4. People on the spectrum have a deficit in simulating the mental states of others.

Intelligence in the social world is theorized to have been formed primarily in response to three pressures. The first is the need to accurately signal intelligence in order to demonstrate genetic quality and fitness to potential mates (McKeown, 2013; Miller, 2000; Miller & Todd, 1998). The second, a pressure to manipulate, deceive, or influence others through the application of such social intelligence (Byrne, 1996; Byrne & Whiten, 1990; Handel, 1982; Sharma et al., 2013; Whiten, 2018). Third, the pressure to accurately maintain and manipulate mental models of complex social networks and interactions, as well as being able to simulate the mental states of others (Bjorklund & Kipp, 2002; Roth & Dicke, 2005; Stone, 2006). A cartoonish description of the hypothetical person who exemplifies all of these traits in the extreme would be one who shows off their intelligence whenever possible, tells lies when it is advantageous to do so, and is capable of keeping track of all the lies they have told.

From the OA.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Right. That is very much my son.

For a while he was studying engineering, and that would have been a good fit. But astronomy was his first love, and that's working out very well now.

How well the rest of his life goes will depend on where he winds up working after grad school. A place with normal "office politics" would probably be a disaster for him. Somewhere that the employees are focused on the research or what they're studying/learning would be good.

A while back he got a CAD (Computer Aided Design) degree and got a job in the local branch of a west-coast based engineering firm. It was intended as a temp job, 60 days, I think. It kept on getting extended, in no small part because he was a good worker and the others there really liked him. They tried very hard to get the main office to make his job permanent, but alas, they wouldn't. So when that job ended he went back to school for the astronomy.

Here's a story that says more about him than almost anything. Back when he applied for that CAD job, I knew he had the job interview on a Monday. So on Wednesday I called him (trying very hard not to be an overbearing mother) and asked him how the interview went. In a rather doubtful tone of voice, he said, "I think it went well." So I dropped the subject, because I knew he didn't need Mom bugging him about the job. We talked about this and that, and after a bit he indicated that he started work on Monday. Thought it went well? They hired him on the spot.

My son is a master of understatement.

[smirkymonkey]

6. What does the study say about people who can detect the bullshitter's bullshit?

Sorry, didn't read it. Because the whole premise just seems like BS to me.

The thing is, people like TFG and other bullshitters like him (used car salesmen, shady investment dealers and other hucksters) always think they are so brilliant at conning other people into doing what they want them to do, but they are only effective in convincing people who are either very stupid (MAGAts), naive, deluded, or who have low-self esteem and weak boundaries. More sophisticated and intelligent people can see through them immediately.

They are psychologically manipulative and devious. I don't think that one needs to be necessarily intelligent to pull that off, just sociopathic, narcissistic and in possession of almost a feral cunning in detecting what other people's weak spots are.

Nobody will ever convince me that someone like Trump and the people he surrounds himself with have anything remotely resembling true intelligence.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

7. I agree with you, SM. The premise itself is bullshit, IMO.

It also depends in the definitions for "bullshit" and "intelligence" that one uses.

As one who formerly spent far too much time in my younger years occupying a bar stool and who worked with thousands of construction and management people out in several industries, I think I've been exposed to a few of the best. Most had the appearance of intelligence but once I got to know them well, they were very shallow and usually with little common sense.

Most top-notch bullshitters I've know were simply extreme extroverts that grew good at it out of years of practice. And, it's my understanding that introvert/extrovert traits are mostly inherited genetically, although those characteristics can be amplified or suppressed by our environment (home, schools, etc.).

Introverts like me, and particularly those of us with Sigma male personalities do not cater to bullshit. Even though we're supposedly among the smartest and inventive people, we simply don't have it in our nature to create bullshit for any serious discussion.

I do however, think all humans are bullshitters to a degree, as most of us cover up out flaws and weaknesses when appropriate just to progress and survive. That's particularly true when trying to attract mates or get a new job.


KY...... ......

[nuxvomica]

8. My views align with Cipolla's definiton of intelligence

Which being that intelligent people are those who act to the benefit of others and themselves, of which former president Obama is a sterling example: he improved the lot of many in this country while making himself wealthy at the same time. Granted, a little bullshit can be used by such people for altruistic goals but mostly honesty, and thereby trustworthiness, is there common currency.