Monthly Archives: December 2015

Greatest name for a research paper ever? “On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit” (direct link to PDF)

To determine factors that might make someone susceptible to reading that Chopra tweet and finding meaning in it, Pennycook and co-authors evaluated participants’ analytical thinking, tendency to confuse one knowledge category with another, such as viewing the material as spiritual, and tendency to hold implausible beliefs. In a series of studies, the authors presented participants with randomly assembled pseudo-profound statements, Deepak Chopra tweets, and tests of cognitive and reasoning ability along with several scales to evaluate factors such as personal beliefs and a tendency to conspiracy ideation.

In general, the profoundness ratings that participants gave the BS statements were very similar to those they gave to Chopra’s tweets.

Source: Why Do Some People Find Deepak Chopra Quotes Deep And Not Dung? – Forbes

Related – random fictional Chopra quotes via www.wisdomofchopra.com

My favorite so far – “The future embraces a jumble of silence”