> “Machiavellianism is characterized by deception and manipulation at others’ expense as well as skepticism and distrust of humankind,” Blötner explained. “Bullshitting can be understood a form of deception, making it a valuable topic for my studies on Machiavellianism.”
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> The study included 525 participants, who ranged in age from 18 to 66. The researchers were particularly interested how bullshitting was related to two different facets of Machiavellianism. Machiavellian approach refers to the tendency to engage in deceit in order to gain resources (“I tend to manipulate others to get my way”), while Machiavellian avoidance refers to the tendency to take a skeptical view of humanity (“Anyone who completely trusts anyone else is asking for trouble”).
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> The researchers found that Machiavellian approach was positively associated with persuasive bullshitting. In other words, those higher in Machiavellian approach were more likely to agree with statements such as “In my daily life, I embellish, exaggerate, or otherwise stretch the truth just a little when I want to impress the person or people I’m talking to.” Machiavellian avoidance, on the other hand, was positively associated with evasive bullshitting, or stretching the truth to avoid trouble and prevent individual disadvantages.
> Those high in Machiavellian avoidance (but not Machiavellian approach) were also better at differentiating meaningful statements from pseudo-profound bullshit. That is, they were less likely to view nonsensical statements such as “Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty” as profound.
> “To me, it was really intriguing to see that different contents of our model of Machiavellianism were predictive of producing different sorts of misinformation,” Blötner said. “Likewise, only few studies have examined whether there are different links with falling for others’ misinformation within the construct of Machiavellianism.”
GreunLight t1_irf15pb wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in Machiavellianism is associated with bullshitting, according to new psychology research by chrisdh79
From the article:
> “Machiavellianism is characterized by deception and manipulation at others’ expense as well as skepticism and distrust of humankind,” Blötner explained. “Bullshitting can be understood a form of deception, making it a valuable topic for my studies on Machiavellianism.”
…
> The study included 525 participants, who ranged in age from 18 to 66. The researchers were particularly interested how bullshitting was related to two different facets of Machiavellianism. Machiavellian approach refers to the tendency to engage in deceit in order to gain resources (“I tend to manipulate others to get my way”), while Machiavellian avoidance refers to the tendency to take a skeptical view of humanity (“Anyone who completely trusts anyone else is asking for trouble”).
…
> The researchers found that Machiavellian approach was positively associated with persuasive bullshitting. In other words, those higher in Machiavellian approach were more likely to agree with statements such as “In my daily life, I embellish, exaggerate, or otherwise stretch the truth just a little when I want to impress the person or people I’m talking to.” Machiavellian avoidance, on the other hand, was positively associated with evasive bullshitting, or stretching the truth to avoid trouble and prevent individual disadvantages.
> Those high in Machiavellian avoidance (but not Machiavellian approach) were also better at differentiating meaningful statements from pseudo-profound bullshit. That is, they were less likely to view nonsensical statements such as “Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty” as profound.
> “To me, it was really intriguing to see that different contents of our model of Machiavellianism were predictive of producing different sorts of misinformation,” Blötner said. “Likewise, only few studies have examined whether there are different links with falling for others’ misinformation within the construct of Machiavellianism.”