Fans of smart quotes from social networks turned out to be stupid

Scientists have experimentally determined that fans of posting “profound” sayings on social networks against a background of landscapes have a low level of intelligence and more often believe in paranormal phenomena and conspiracy theories. A study on this topic was published in the journal Judgment and Decision Making, and briefly informs the Daily Mail.

In the article “On the perception and recognition of pseudo-wise nonsense,” psychologists attempted to answer the question whether some people are more susceptible to inspiring quotes than others. They showed 845 to “deep” thoughts to volunteers (“You're as strong as your next move is”, “Keep calm inside yourself in the midst of movement and chaos”) found on the Internet and randomly generated (on Special website). Obvious statements were added to such thoughts (for example, “newborns need special attention”, “most people like music”).

It turned out that fictitious (computer-generated) and real inspirational quotes were not distinguished by research participants, and they were all given roughly the same marks on the “depth of thought” scale (high compared to trivial statements). Then all the participants in the experiment passed a series of psychological tests and filled out a questionnaire with questions about their own beliefs.

Connoisseurs of "profound quotations" (who gave them a high rating) turned out to be about 27 percent. It turned out that all of them "are not prone to reflection, think less well, think and solve problems more slowly, more often adhere to religious beliefs and superstitions, tend to believe in a global conspiracy."