Does pseudo profound bullshit belong in the workplace?
When everyone at work seems to find your boss #inspiring except you
Cynical and Struggling writes,
HELP! I just started a new job, and within a week people couldn’t stop telling me how “inspiring” the new CEO was. “Wait until you meet him, you’ll be blown away.” Well last week, I met him. We had a work dinner, and the CEO stood up and gave a speech that knocked people’s socks off. One woman teared up. The problem is, while everyone else seemed inspired by the boss, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was completely full of shit. He would say things like, “Inspiration is a state of mind that spreads. It’s not a choice of being.” What does that even mean?! Am I being too cynical at work? Has years of disappointment turned me bitter? Should I quit tomorrow or try to be more open minded?
Dear Cynical and Struggling,
I feel your pain. If I worked at your company, I would be right there with you, siting in the corner drinking my prosecco and rolling my eyes at these gullible people. It sounds like your boss is indulging in something that social scientists have been studying for some time: pseudo-profound bullshit. Think “seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous” (From Pennycook et al., 2015). There are lots of folks out there who are willing to spew forth this type of nonsense. What’s interesting is who is susceptible to it.
It turns out that some people are more likely to re-tweet, re-post, or simply be inspired by pseudo-profound bullshit, than others. And the good news is, there’s a “bullshit receptivity scale” to help you figure out how susceptible you are (you can also sneakily give the test to your awestruck colleagues). Gordon Pennycook and his collaborators created a test with 30 statements. To make them, they randomly mashed together a list of “profound sounding” words, while following basic rules about sentence structure. They then asked people how “profound” each statement is. The higher your average profoundness score, the more susceptible you are to bullshit (the test is below).
So what’s your next move? Worst case scenario, you’re working alongside a bunch of people who score high on this test—who, as a consequence, are ardent lovers of your bullshit artist CEO. The question is, should that be a deal breaker?
I would ask myself this: Does the new CEO back up his statements with clear behaviors that create a productive and healthy work environment? I prefer a “show not tell” approach to evaluating people like this guy. Daily actions speak louder than words, and if he’s creating norms at work that you like, I would be willing to look past the lame speeches. Does he do things like give voice to people who don’t otherwise have it? Teach leaders how to create fair systems and structures? Real inspiration isn’t sexy or speechy—it’s a daily grind. And look for behaviors that aren’t public, symbolic, or showy. Cultures at work are born out of daily habits, not vague platitudes like “Wholeness quiets infinite phenomena.”
The Bullshit Receptivity Test
Here’s the scale that Pennycook et al. (2015) created. Take it yourself, hand it out to others, or combine it with my 100-item relationship test to find out how receptive your future love interest is to bullshit.
We are interested in how people experience the profound. Below are a series of statements taken from relevant websites. Please read each statement and take a moment to think about what it might mean. Then please rate how ‘profound’ you think it is. Profound means ‘of deep meaning; of great and broadly inclusive significance.’
1= Not at all profound, 2 = somewhat profound, 3 = fairly profound, 4 = definitely profound, 5 = very profound.
A bullshit receptivity score is the average of ratings for all bullshit items
1. Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty.
2. Good health imparts reality to subtle creativity.
3. Wholeness quiets infinite phenomena.
4. The future explains irrational facts.
5. Imagination is inside exponential space time events.
6. Your consciousness gives rise to a jumble of neural networks.
7. Your movement transforms universal observations.
8. Perceptual reality transcends subtle truth.
9. The invisible is beyond new timelessness.
10. The unexplainable undertakes intrinsic experiences.
11. We are in the midst of a self-aware blossoming of being that will align us with the nexus itself.
12. Consciousness consists of frequencies of quantum energy. “Quantum” means an unveiling of the unrestricted.
13. Consciousness is the growth of coherence, and of us.
14. We are in the midst of a high-frequency blossoming of interconnectedness that will give us access to the quantum soup itself.
15. Today, science tells us that the essence of nature is joy.
16. As you self-actualize, you will enter into infinite empathy that transcends understanding.
17. The infinite is calling to us via superpositions of possibilities.
18. We are being called to explore the totality itself as an interface between serenity and intuition.
19. Throughout history, humans have been interacting with the dreamscape via bio-electricity.
20. The future will be an astral unveiling of inseparability.
21. Attention and intention are the mechanics of manifestation.
22. Our minds extend across space and time as waves in the ocean of the one mind.
23. Nature is a self-regulating ecosystem of awareness.
24. We are non-local beings that localize as a dot then inflate to become non-local again. The universe is mirrored in us.
25. Mechanics of Manifestation: Intention, detachment, centered in being allowing juxtaposition of possibilities to unfold.
26. Mind and matter are subtle and dense vibrations of consciousness (spirit).
27. We are not an emergent property of a mechanical universe but the seasonal activity of a living cosmos.
28. Every material particle is a relationship of probability waves in a field of infinite possibilities. You are that.
29. As beings of light we are local and non-local, time bound and timeless actuality and possibility.
30. Matter is the experience in consciousness of a deeper non-material reality.
Have a workplace dilemma?
Have a career question? You can share your story here, and in a week or so, I’ll share my advice. You can go totally anonymous, or share your first name and location. Whatever makes you comfortable. And if you accidentally include some identifying details, don’t worry. I will edit them out before I post.
Extra Bits and Bobs
Side gigs have been around forever, but these days, more and more of my already-employed friends are taking them on. I wrote this piece on career hoarding back in June for Fortune, but as more people are thinking about career transitions, it still feels relevant. What’s the danger of taking on a meaning making side gig? Should you do it if you’re at an in-between stage, thinking of leaving one career and starting another? Take a look!
What' I’m Reading
Annie Duke’s new Book Quit is a tour de force. This WSJ Review does a great job summarizing why we should listen to this poker champ when it comes to knowing when it’s time to fold our hand. No, grit is not always a good thing. And Annie is the perfect person to remind of us of this.