Defining bullshit as “information designed to impress, persuade, or otherwise mislead people that is often constructed without concern for the truth,” researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada conducted a study with over 800 participants from the US and Canada.

The study aimed to examine the relationship between people’s self-reported engagement with bullshitting and their ratings of how profound, truthful, or accurate they found false statements and new headlines to be. Researchers found a link between the two. "We found that the more frequently someone engages in persuasive bullshitting, the more likely they are to be duped by various types of misleading information,” says Shane Littrell, lead author.

Understanding why people share fake news is an important step toward stopping its spreadSurface (2021)

Globally, over half of regular internet users say that false information or fake news is their biggest concern. In the US, the problem appears to be snowballing, with a report by Axios finding that in 2020, 17% of engagement with the 100 top-performing news sources on social media was dubious, up from 8% in 2019, suggesting that misinformation is a ceaseless concern for society.

The University of Waterloo researchers believe that their study can assist in the fight against fake news. “Persuasive BSers seem to mistake superficial profoundness for actual profoundness,” says Littrell, noting that understanding the motivations behind why people share fake news is an important step toward stopping its spread.

Louis Tozer is a behavioural analyst of social sciences at Canvas8. He holds a master's degree in history from UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies and was formerly a research assistant at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory in Belgrade. He can often be found in the pub with friends or at Roots Hall, the home of Southend United.