Bullshitters. Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives?

John Jerrim (j.jerrim@ioe.ac.uk), Phil Parker (philip.parker@acu.edu.au) and Nikki Shure
Additional contact information
John Jerrim: University College London
Phil Parker: Australian Catholic University

No 12282, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: 'Bullshitters' are individuals who claim knowledge or expertise in an area where they actually have little experience or skill. Despite this being a well-known and widespread social phenomenon, relatively few large-scale empirical studies have been conducted into this issue. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by examining teenagers' propensity to claim expertise in three mathematics constructs that do not really exist. Using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from nine Anglophone countries and over 40,000 young people, we find substantial differences in young people's tendency to bullshit across countries, genders and socio-economic groups. Bullshitters are also found to exhibit high levels of overconfidence and believe they work hard, persevere at tasks, and are popular amongst their peers. Together this provides important new insight into who bullshitters are and the type of survey responses that they provide.

Keywords: PISA; overclaiming; bullshit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2019-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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