Cognitive dissonance, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and gaslighting—everyone believes they know what these mean, but is that so? Bullshitologist @metacognishane.bsky.social has his doubts, and puts any misunderstanding right: buff.ly/1kDNnuj

New article is posted! In this one, I somewhat jokingly complain about how often cognitive dissonance, Dunning Kruger Effect, and gaslighting are misused online and why it irritates me. Is it all BS? Am I “gaslighting” you? Click here to find out: bullshitology.substack.com/p/thats-not-...

The war against ‘woke’ could end US science as we know it www.theverge.com/science/9576... @standupforscience.net @cdelawalla.bsky.social : "If this rule change goes forward, science in the US 'will stop. It won’t exist anymore.'" Dark Age 2.0.

link.springer.com/article/10.1... Fantastic detective work here. Francine Shapiro's widely-believed story about her discovery of EMDR is false, and perhaps just a branding exercise to conceal an origin in NLP

New article is posted! In this one, I somewhat jokingly complain about how often cognitive dissonance, Dunning Kruger Effect, and gaslighting are misused online and why it irritates me. Is it all BS? Am I “gaslighting” you? Click here to find out: bullshitology.substack.com/p/thats-not-...

John has helped get 1000000% better at making visualizations in Stata. Definitely worth checking this out:

How should we conceptualize political interest? In POQ, Laffineur et al. demonstrate that political interest and disinterest are distinct social identities through a newly developed methodological approach. Read now: doi.org/10.1093/poq/...

The critical issue isn't that some people like jargon; it's that some people can't tell the difference between legitimate uses of jargon and instances of misleading corporate bullshit. www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

Makes sense if you think about it. 😉 shanelittrell.com/the-corporat...

🚨 Do you or your students use @statacorp.bsky.social? Want to learn some tricks for better graphs? If so, I'm hosting a seminar w/ @instats.bsky.social on June 8 and 9! Lots of tips, tricks & guidance for clearer, prettier data viz for descriptive & inferential analyses. Pls spread the word! 🙏

What I imagined conversations with Claude would be like versus what they're actually like:

The Corporate BS Generator is up and running! In my latest post, I tell you where you can find it and how you can help improve it, along w/ other helpful info. Check it out when you get time! bullshitology.substack.com/p/the-corpor...

Selecting an effect size for power analysis is hard. Many researchers fall back on Cohen's thresholds, but they have no empirical basis and vary wildly by field. Our new paper offers a better option: field-specific effect size distributions built from meta-analytic data doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Corporate bullshit is like poison in teams and organizations. Appreciating corporate-bullshit is associated with a positive perceptions of one’s corporate job, but worse performance! Take the bullshit receptivity scale so you can take it yourself here: www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/what-corpo...

The Corporate Bullshit Generator is finally live on my webpage. Go play around with it when you get time. Still working out some of the bugs, but it works (mostly)! Hours of mind-numbing, soul-crushing fun! 😉 Link here: shanelittrell.com/the-corporat...

In his newest post, @metacognishane.bsky.social discusses the most common reasons we all occasionally get “brown-pilled.” A most useful guide. (You do know what “brown-pilling” is, of course, yes? Everyone knows.) buff.ly/CekiYkd

You've been brown-pilled and didn't even know it. We all have. Check out my new article on why misinformation works (even when we're trying to be careful): bullshitology.substack.com/p/brown-pill...

...and this video of @nmalhotra.bsky.social and me discussing the study! www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2E3...

Climate change impacts are here, but public support for action remains polarized. Which climate messages move people? In a ~13,500-person megastudy, we tested 10 of the most-cited messages. Six increased pro-environmental attitudes in the U.S.—but only by 1–4 percentage points. 🧵

The word "functional" - especially when used in the wellness industry - is a red flag of bullshit.

Advertisers, politicians, and other bullshitters can easily exploit our brain's "fast and slow" thinking modes to manipulate our attitudes and actions. Don't let it happen to you. Read the full article here: bullshitology.substack.com/p/the-scienc...

I was on CBC's "The Current" radio/podcast today talking about my work. I'm so grateful that so many people liked and connected with this research. Hopefully, that means people will remember me when I'm on the (faculty) job market later this year. 😅 www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

🧠🐛 + 🦝🍆 = 🤡🌎

I was on CBC's "The Current" radio/podcast today talking about my work. I'm so grateful that so many people liked and connected with this research. Hopefully, that means people will remember me when I'm on the (faculty) job market later this year. 😅 www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

I our essay for the @orlandosentinel William Proctor and I discuss #socialmediaaddiction. Is there such a thing, or is it a moral panic? www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/04/11/c...

Advertisers, politicians, and other bullshitters can easily exploit our brain's "fast and slow" thinking modes to manipulate our attitudes and actions. Don't let it happen to you. Read the full article here: bullshitology.substack.com/p/the-scienc...

My latest article breaks down the science behind how people get you to say "yes" and why learning this won't save you. I'd ask you to read it, but I'm going to start small and just ask you to click the link. (That's the foot-in-the-door technique. You're welcome.) open.substack.com/pub/bullshit...

How come we sometimes say ‘yes’ to salespeople, bosses and colleagues, and even friends, when we know we shouldn’t have? @metacognishane.bsky.social, for once, not writing (about) bullshit, but about the science of ‘yes’: buff.ly/2AXfyAr

My latest article breaks down the science behind how people get you to say "yes" and why learning this won't save you. I'd ask you to read it, but I'm going to start small and just ask you to click the link. (That's the foot-in-the-door technique. You're welcome.) open.substack.com/pub/bullshit...

One of my favorites paper got published 🤓 It covers a lot of ground and it’s the best summary of my views on misinformation and what to do about it. Give it a read :) 🔓 osf.io/preprints/ps... 👉 doi.org/10.1177/1461...

I was on @npr.org's "All Things Considered" today talking about my latest research. Given how much I hate the actual sound of my own voice, I thought it would be fun to inflict that displeasure on all of you, too. www.npr.org/2026/04/01/n...

I was on @npr.org's "All Things Considered" today talking about my latest research. Given how much I hate the actual sound of my own voice, I thought it would be fun to inflict that displeasure on all of you, too. www.npr.org/2026/04/01/n...

If I've learned anything this week, it's that everyone on LinkedIn totally HATES corporate bullshit, you guys, and they've all been heroically calling it out for years wherever they see it. NONE of them have ever fallen for it and NONE of them ever use it either!

Kennedy’s Vaccine Agenda Hits Roadblocks, Diminishing His Clout Surgeon General nominee is stalled. CDC is officially leaderless. A judge says Kennedy overstepped his bounds. My latest in @nytimes.com on RFK’s no good terrible horrible very bad month. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/u...

"Corporate settings are saturated with authority cues like titles, power hierarchies, [and] 'leadership vision,'” Littrell told Investopedia via email, "which makes impressive-sounding ('bullshitty') ambiguity especially easy to pass off as insight." www.investopedia.com/a-cornell-re...

New study finds that employees impressed by corporate speak may be least equipped to make effective decisions

“This isn’t something that only affects people who are less intelligent. Anybody can fall for bullshit when it is packaged up to appeal to our biases.” Nice interview and article about my corporate bullshit paper in The Guardian today: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Corporate bullshit – "let's optimize & leverage that synergizing pivot!" – sooooo grating! Study: Workers who fall for ‘corporate bullshit’ worse at jobs www.theguardian.com/business/202... Workers "impressed by corporate speak may be the least equipped to make effective" business decisions.

New Substack post is up! bit.ly/3NAO61k This one covers my new paper on measuring "Corporate BS Receptivity" (CBSR), including what BS actually is, how it spreads in the workplace, and what we can do about it. 🐂 💩

“This isn’t something that only affects people who are less intelligent. Anybody can fall for bullshit when it is packaged up to appeal to our biases.” Nice interview and article about my corporate bullshit paper in The Guardian today: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

More than half of TikTok ADHD content is misinformation, new research finds www.the-independent.com/tech/tiktok-... "...52% of #ADHD -related videos and 41% of autism videos analysed on TikTok were inaccurate..."

Mental health misinformation widespread on social media, study ca.news.yahoo.com/tiktok-leads... Up to 56% of "posts about autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, OCD, anxiety, & phobias were found to be often inaccurate or unsubstantiated."

New study finds link between receptivity to “corporate bullshit” and weaker leadership skills

What better to introduce an article on Corporate Bullshit and how to measure receptivity to it? Indeed—a *bullshit* title. Bullshitmeister @metacognishane knows his onions, for sure: buff.ly/qPqFUws

“The bottom line is that almost anyone can fall for bullshit when it’s packaged to appeal to their specific expertise, interests, or biases.”

Working hypothesis: If you're doing research and don't occasionally have a small existential crisis, either you've been blessed to work in an exceptional field (do tell which one it is!), or maybe you're being a bit naive.

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with (corporate) bullshit." www.inc.com/jessica-stil...

Many supporters of science note the latest attack on US research as "senseless" or "no good reason" as if it is just an irrational attack on things (science & medicine) that all recognize are both good and outside of politics. Better if we acknowledged that there are clear goals to this attack. 1/4

New Substack post is up! bit.ly/3NAO61k This one covers my new paper on measuring "Corporate BS Receptivity" (CBSR), including what BS actually is, how it spreads in the workplace, and what we can do about it. 🐂 💩

Apparently, I broke ResearchGate with a single paper. 😬