Episode 15: Wisdom, Bullshit & Beliefs (with Gordon Pennycook)

‘Wholeness quiets infinite phenomena?’ Does it, really?! Why do some people fall for pseudo-profound bullshit and others don’t? When we share fake news stories, is this because we're motivated to think they're real, or because we don't bother to think at all? And why do scientists fight tooth-and-nail over the mechanisms involved, such as “System I vs. System II”, “Fast vs. Slow” and other frameworks? Gordon Pennycook joins Igor and Charles to discuss the critical distinction between a liar and a bullshitter, the cognitive reflection test, the random Deepak Chopra quote generator, the Ig Nobel prize, motivated reasoning, climate change beliefs, academic turf wars among dual process theorists, and how to stop yourself from compulsively retweeting fake news. Igor suggests that Gord only thought of studying bullshit after disbelief at one of Igor’s early talks, Gord reminds us that even the most enlightened social media platforms are in no hurry to help people STOP sharing news, and Charles unexpectedly finds common ground with the Chinese government. Welcome to Episode 15.

Special Guest: Gordon Pennycook.

Links:

• Gordon Pennycook's Site
• On Bullshit - Harry G. Frankfurt (2005)
• On the Reception and Detection of Pseudoprofound Bullshit - Pennycook, Cheyne, Barr, Koehler, Fugelsang (2015)
• Random Deepak Chopra Quote Generator - Wisdom of Chopra
• Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony 2016 - Video
• Opinion | Why Do People Fall for Fake News? - The New York Times
• People Furthest Apart on Climate Views Are Often the Most Educated - Scientific American (2017)
• Lazy, not biased: Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning - Pennycook & Rand (2018)
• Everyday Consequences of Analytic Thinking - Pennycook, Fugelsang, Koehler (2015)
• The Mythical Number Two - Melnikoff & Bargh (2018)
• The Mythical DualProcess Typology Gordon Pennycook, De Neys, Evans, Stanovich, Thompson (2018)