Research

Misleading information

I study why some people are especially drawn to misleading information, including bullshit, conspiracy theories, and other claims that feel meaningful despite being weak, false, or empty. My work examines both sides of this problem: who produces bullshit, who falls for it, and why those two groups often overlap. This includes developing measures such as the Bullshitting Frequency Scale and the Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale. I’ve also made my Corporate Bullshit Generator available on this website, which you can find by using the navigation bars at the top and bottom of this page.

Analytic thinking, motivation, and personality

I also study analytic thinking, reasoning, and metacognition, including the gap between how well people reason and how confident they are in their own judgments and intellectual agility. This work has focused especially on overconfidence, narcissism, and impulsivity. For example, my published work has shown that both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are linked to weaker analytic thinking and metacognitive errors, including forms of overconfidence. These findings suggest that some people may be especially prone to trusting their own judgment precisely when they should be more cautious.

Current and applied directions

I am now extending this work with new projects examining the metacognitive processes that help people recognize misleading information, and the ones that lead them to trust it anyway. I am especially interested in why confidence often exceeds evidence, how people misjudge the quality of their own reasoning, and how self-generated explanations can make dubious claims feel more true. I am applying these questions to conspiracy beliefs, corporate hiring, education, and other settings where misleading rhetoric can shape real-world judgments.