Honors Thesis Archive
| Author | Haley Eckhert |
|---|---|
| Title | Narcissism Predicts Higher Bullshit Transmission and Bullshit Receptivity |
| Department | Psychology |
| Advisor | Billy Davis |
| Year | 2023 |
| Honors | University Honors |
| Full Text | View Thesis (444 KB) |
| Abstract | Bullshit is an empty, and misleading form of communication that is a ubiquitous component of our society. Bullshit can be found in many areas including politics, the workplace, advertisements, and social media. Bullshit’s prevalent usage and impact has led to the development of research on bullshit. Previous research has found multiple types of bullshit and has looked to relate it to various things such as cognitive ability, spreading of false news, and personality traits. Expanding upon this research, this present study examines the correlations between participant’s frequency of bullshit transmission and receptivity to bullshit of both types of bullshit to the two (grandiose and vulnerable narcissism) and three-factor model of narcissism (antagonism, agentic extraversion, and narcissistic neuroticism). We hypothesized that those who are higher in narcissistic traits that encourage one to be flashy and impressive will positively associate to transmission of persuasive bullshit and those high in narcistic traits that encourage avoiding criticism will positively associate with transmission of evasive bullshit. Furthermore, we expect narcissist traits that are more skeptical of the world to negatively relate to bullshit receptivity. The findings show a positive association between narcissism antagonism and persuasive and evasive bullshit as well as agentic extraversion and persuasive bullshit. Results also showed narcissistic neuroticism was positively related to both persuasive and evasive bullshit. This study helps provide a base for the association between the types of bullshit and components of narcissism and gives further insight on how bullshit utilization is related to desires and motivations of different personality traits. |
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