How to Detect BS with John Petrocelli

Ah, bullshit. We see it—and call it—all around us: with kids, partners, colleagues, advertising, politics, etc. You name the domain and we’ve seen its BS. Sometimes it’s innocuous and frustrating, but other times it can detrimental, holding us back from trading in truth and reality. 

 

So how do spot and combat the BS swirling around us? John Petrocelli, social psychologist and author of the new book The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit joined me for a conversation to help decode, demystify, and push past the BS. And yes, it’s science.

What is the meaning of bullshit?

 

Borrowing from a definition developed by moral philosopher Harry Frankfurt, BS, John explains,  is “a communicative substance that results from intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously… communicating something that one knows little to nothing about” often to impress, to fit in, to persuade, or simply to hide the fact that one doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

 

“Essentially,” he continues, “it just involves talking about something with little to no regard for what we would call truth, genuine evidence, or established knowledge.”

 

And this matters because, as John told me, “the research so far suggests that BS can have a longer-lasting and more impactful effect on a person’s attitudes and beliefs.” In other words, BS carries consequences we need to attend to.

How does bullshit show up in the workplace?

“You would think,” he began, “that the workplace would be a place that people would engage in evidence-based communication and reasoning more than any other place, but you find just as much BS there as [anywhere else].”

 

Much of this is driven by people feeling obligated to have an informed opinion about everything. This is exacerbated in the workplace, where we are, after all, supposed to be experts at our jobs. So, when a question is posed, we should have an answer. When an idea is challenged, we should have a defense at the ready.

 

“But the reality is oftentimes we do not have well-informed answers and evidence-based beliefs about the things we do.”

 

I shared with John some of my own personal...

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