What did the researchers do and find?

We attempted to describe political bullshit and theoretically outline it by systematizing literature on this and similar phenomena. Equally important, we attempted to measure it, that is, develop a “test” to estimate the extent to which a person can be receptive to such communication. We developed three such tests. One was made up of ten sentences which participants rated on how persuasive they were. One of the sentences stated: “To politically lead the people means to always fight for them”. So, though the sentence looks as it conveys something, it is not clear what it means to fight for people. It is vague, abstract, and essentially meaningless, as every political bullshit is. The second one was made up of five slogans about elections in a fictitious country of Gonfel: “For better and stronger Gonfel!”. What does it mean for a country to be better and stronger? Finally, we made three long political programs that did not have any sensible meaning, also related to the fictitious country of Gonfel.

We discovered that these tests work well and that right-wing people (especially neoliberals) are more receptive to these statements