On the acceptance of 'pseudo-profound bulls***'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-find-a-link-between-low-intelligence-and-acceptance-of-pseudo-profound-bulls-a6757731.html

Scientists find a link between low intelligence and acceptance of 'pseudo-profound bulls***'

Those who are more receptive to pseudo-profound new-age statements are more likely to have lower intelligence and a greater faith in alternative medicine, the study found John Minihan/Express/Getty Images

Those who are impressed by wise-sounding quotes are also more likely to believe in conspiracy theories and the paranormal

• Doug Bolton 
• @DougieBolton 
• 13 hours  ago
• 1 comment

A new scientific study has found that those who are receptive to pseudo-profound, intellectual-sounding 'bulls***' are less intelligent, less reflective, and more likely to be believe in conspiracy theories, the paranormal and alternative medicine.

PhD candidate Gordon Pennycook and a team of researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, tested hundreds of particiapants to make the link, detailing their findings in a paper entitled 'On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bulls***', which mentions the word 'bulls***' exactly 200 times (surely some sort of record).

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Defining bulls*** is a tricky task, but Pennycook and his team tried their best in the paper.

As an example, they gave the following 'pseudo-profound' statement: "Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty."

The paper says: "Although this statement may seem to convey some sort of potentially profound meaning, it is merely a collection of buzzwords put together randomly in a sentence that retains syntactic strcuture."

"Bulls***, in contrast to mere nonsense, is something that implies but does not contain adequate meaning or truth."

So Now Everything Is Google's Fault
Washington Post - United States
Now he's back again, this time targeting Google. Thank God the bloggers are here to call bullshit because the journalists, fearing their own looming ...



hc舊文

「二○○四年秋天，日本全國六百家書店一起舉辦了「Comic Essay書展」 …….「Comic Essay」顧名思義是漫畫（comic）和散文（ essay）的混合創作，………輕鬆幽默的劇情加上或爆笑或溫馨的漫畫表現，Comic Essay類型讀物在日本獲得許多女性讀者的支持。」（〈日本：閱讀風潮〉陳孟姝『「 Comic Essay」成為新閱讀趨勢 』）上文中comic，或許以後可以再談。「散文（ essay）」，「多少」算是美麗的錯誤了解。

(其實，你參觀fortune.com雙周刊，就有篇所謂 photo essay的--
HEWLETT-PACKARD: ONLINE EXCLUSIVE What FORTUNE Said About Carly 
It has been just over six years since Carleton S. Fiorina, now 50, burst upon the national stage and we will acknowledge straight out that FORTUNE played a role in putting her name in lights. In 1998, FORTUNE ranked her No. 1 on its first-ever ranking of the 50 most powerful women executives in the U.S., and that was the end of her quasi-obscurity. In the pages that follow, see highlights from our coverage…)
我們查一下線上辭典。我想goo辭典對於essay的解釋大體抓到重點 (英文 from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)：
━━ n. （文芸上の）小論, 試論; 評論, 随筆; 試み ((at, in)).━━ essay (ATTEMPT) verb [T] OLD-FASHIONED 此「嘗試」義為本來意思（如胡適的『嘗試集』（詩？）） v. 試みる, 企てる. to try to do something:例The procedure was first essayed in 1923.
essay (WRITING) UK noun [C] (US paper) --重點：essay可以說是「（專題）小論文」
a short piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one done by students as part of the work for a course:例：For homework I want you to write an essay on endangered species.
essayist 　 ━━ n. 日本 随筆家.【或許誤譯】a person who writes essays that are published:
a political essayist

****
essay question：論文式（テスト）問題.。我猜這是「「小問題」之『大哉問』」，最近的例子是美國某名大學出版社將約20 年前某篇討論人們為什麼喜歡/會 說：「bull shit」等等的哲學（「愛智！」）分析。（
bull (NONSENSE) noun [U] INFORMAL
complete nonsense or something that is not true:
Don't give me that bull about not knowing the time

bullshit Show phonetics
exclamation, noun [U] OFFENSIVE
complete nonsense or something that is not true:
Bullshit! He never said that!
He gave me some excuse but it was a load of bullshit.

bullshit Show phonetics
verb [I or T] -tt- OFFENSIVE
to try to persuade or impress someone by saying things that are not true:
You're bullshitting me!
Quit bullshitting, will you!

bullshitter Show phonetics
noun [C] OFFENSIVE