All we have to do to find lies and BS these days is to turn on a device. Social media is filled with “influencers” who make their opinions seem far more interesting than the truth. Newscasters offer up stories that have no context, so the truth gets skewed or entirely lost. Politicians flat out lie. Advertisers and marketers encourage us to override our better judgment to spend money on things that we don’t need. And sometimes it’s even family and friends who become true believers and start to spread the bad information themselves.
The BS is everywhere.
But there is an antidote. Professor of experimental social psychology John V. Petrocelli meets the BS with intelligence, perception, and the scientific method. He goes deep into the BS to find out why people say the crazy things they say and to help the rest of us deal with it. He studies BS for a living, so he understands that there is a cost to dealing it, whether it means you’re spending too much on a car, dealing with the effects of investing with someone like Bernie Madoff, or just trying to decide which politician to vote for.
Petrocelli uses psychological concepts to explain how we fall under the influence of BS, like confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, and our tendency to conform to what we see others doing. But understanding the rhetoric and other tricks that others use to trick us, we have another tool to protect ourselves from getting pulled in. And he has another tool that he uses. When he’s analyzing something that he thinks smells like BS, he has a system for how strong the smell is. His BS Flies Index assigns 1-3 flies to the lies, depending on just how strong the BS is.
Now, the next time you’re faced with a flat Earther you have information to counter that. A cousin who still thinks vaccines cause autism? You’ll have it covered. Your best friend is getting ready to pop the question and has to buy a ring? You can help get the best price. When your coworker makes you watch their favorite TED Talk on intermittent fasting, you can do more than just roll your eyes. You can figure out for yourself if the information is true for yourself.
I listened to The Life-Changing Science of Bullshit on audio, and narrator Larry Herron made this book sound accessible. He’s conversational and natural, and I was especially impressed with his impressions of recent Presidents. He can bring the derision when it’s warranted, and makes clarifying the facts sound doable, even against an ocean of BS.
I thought this book was fascinating. In the current political climate, having skills like these is invaluable. And for dealing with all the information on the internet, this book is really helpful for dealing with all the insanity and misinformation. Even just watching the news brings up so many questions that a book like this is necessary. It would actually be a good book to revisit every few years, to learn all these concepts again and to remember not to let your guard down against all the BS out there in the world.
Egalleys for The Life-Changing Science of Bullshit were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I bought the audio book myself through Audible.
