Having The Ability To B.S. Is A Sign Of Intellect

How many times in your life have you been told that you were “full of crap?” Well, it might not be such a bad thing after all. New research published in Evolutionary Psychology shows that having the ability to dish out quality B.S. could be a sign of high intelligence.

• The study looked at 1,017 people and “examined correlations between cognitive ability, the willingness to B.S., and the ability to do it well.” To find all this out, they gave each participant ten “concepts” and asked them to rate them on a five-point scale as to how well they understood it from completely to not at all.
• Two of them – Sexual Selection Theory and General Relativity – were real. The other four – Subjunctive Scaling, Declarative Fraction, Genetic Autonomy, and Neural Acceptance – were totally made up.
• From there, 534 of the participants were asked to B.S. a convincing explanation for what the concepts were. From there, another group of “B.S. raters” were told to use another five-point scale to rate how effectively the B.S. flowed.

Those who were able to create convincing B.S. also tended to test highly on vocabulary, abstract reasoning, and non-verbal fluid intelligence tests. They found that being an effective B.S.er having the skill might help people “navigate social systems,” serve as a “strategy to impress others,” and could very well be a “honest signal of one’s intelligence.” Or, we could be B.S.ing you.

Source:Evolutionary Psychology