Listener Favorites: John Petrocelli | The Life Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit

The Unmistakable Creative Podcast

Srinivas Rao

Society & Culture

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John Petrocelli reveals the science behind detecting BS, which has become so pervasive in today's world. What is the difference between lying and bullshitting? What makes BS more dangerous than lying? How do we develop the critical thinking habits needed to detect it? Find this out and much more.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	As you probably notice, this month, we're bringing you our Life of Purpose series and revisiting
0:04.6	some of our most transformative episodes. Tune in to explore expert insights and practical
0:09.4	strategies on help, performance, and community well-being, all aimed at helping you achieve
0:14.4	personal and professional fulfillment. If you sign up for the newsletter, you'll not only get
0:18.5	recaps of the key ideas in each interview, but at the end of the series, you'll receive our free life of purpose ebook.
0:24.7	What you have to do is go to unmistakablecreative.com slash life purpose.
0:28.1	Again, that's unmistakablecreative.com slash life purpose.
0:31.9	There was really nothing that psychological science had contributed to understanding this behavior. And here I am. I'm a
0:40.0	social psychologist. I'm supposed to understand thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and how those are
0:46.2	influenced by the context, the situation, whether it's real or imagined. And I couldn't tell you in
0:52.2	2010 why people BS and what the consequences were. There's
0:57.0	basic questions we didn't have answered. So I tackled it and I thought there's no better word for
1:02.5	this behavior, which is distinct from lying. It's not lying. It's often confused for lying,
1:08.0	but bullshitting is not lying. So the liar knows and cares about the
1:12.6	truth, and the liar does not believe what it is they say. The bullshitter, on the other hand,
1:17.8	doesn't care what the truth is. They're not paying any attention to it. In fact, what they say
1:22.3	sometimes just by chance, by accident, is actually correct. But even they wouldn't know it because they're not
1:27.9	paying any attention to truth, established knowledge, or genuine evidence.
1:35.4	I'm Sreeny Rao, and this is the Unmistakable Creative Podcast, where you get a window into the
1:40.2	stories and insights of the most innovative and creative minds who started movements,
1:44.6	built thriving businesses, written bestselling books, and created insanely interesting art.
1:49.1	For more, check out our 500 episode archive at UnmistakableCreative.com.
	...

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