Experimental social psychologist John V. Petrocelli examines the nature of bullsh*t, what makes people susceptible to it, and how to avoid being deceived.

A lie is told with the intent to deceive through deliberately hiding the truth. Bullsh*t is different.

Someone speaking bullsh*t simply does not pay regard to what is true.

Bullsh*t is common in marketing and sales, self-help coaching, and political speech.

People have used bullsh*t to make names for themselves in academia and finance.

In purporting to make factual claims about the world, bullsh*tters ignore historical records or scientific methods. Sometimes they pass bullsh*t off as legitimate science.

John V. Petrocelli is an experimental social psychologist at Wake Forest University, North Carolina. He studies the causes and motives of bullsh*t, its social costs, and how it can be detected and neutralized.

In The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullsh*t, Petrocelli examines the circumstances that allow bullsh*t to thrive and shows us how to recognize it.