Study: Some Deepak Chopra Tweets Are Indistinguishable From Bullshit

[HuckleB]

http://factually.gizmodo.com/study-some-deepak-chopra-tweets-are-indistinguishable-1745338066

"Deepak Chopra is known around the world for spouting pseudo-scientific garbage wrapped up in spiritual feel-goodery. A new paper in the journal Judgment and Decision Making even uses Chopra’s tweets to show how some people have trouble distinguishing profound statements from bullshit.

The paper, titled “On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit,” doesn’t pull any punches. But it carefully notes that, “None of this is intended to imply that every statement in Chopra’s tweet history is bullshit.” (Emphasis mine.)

Researchers took the Chopra tweet below, published in June of 2014, and presented it to study participants along with randomly generated statements that employed “profound” buzzwords. The statements made sense grammatically, but made absolutely no sense logically.

...

As Dr. Emily Willingham explains in a post over at Forbes, the researchers found that there were a variety of reasons that some people found Chopra’s bullshit to be profound. They looked at the participants’ analytical thinking skills and willingness to accept implausible ideas. Those who found Chopra to be profound tended to be less skeptical of the paranormal and scored lower on cognitive and reasoning ability tests.

..."


----------------------------------------------


Also, see why meaningless marketing terms work on some people.

[merrily]

1. Some bullshit is profound and some alleged profundities are bullshit.

The subject line of this post is an example of both propositions.

In the eye of the beholder, anyway.

[HuckleB]

2. The subject line simply states the results of the study.

[merrily]

4. My reference was to the subject line of my own post, not the OP.

[HuckleB]

18. OK, I guess I need more coffee.

[merrily]

20. No worries, but I could use more coffee, too, now that you mention it, LOL.

[Orrex]

3. It's less "eye of the beholder" and more "brand name on the packaging"

Chopra gets paid millions for spouting meaningless garbage, but if the same garbage were spouted by a guy nearby on the subway, most people would jump off at the next stop.

[merrily]

5. We could quibble, but many things affect the eye of the beholder.

[Orrex]

7. And that's how Chopra makes his millions

Rather than calling him out as a fraud, people go out of their way to assign value to his platitudes and thereafter credit him for whatever value they've been able to assign. It's textbook outsourcing, and Chopra rolls to the bank over a carpet of eager apologists.

I'm not accusing you of being a Chopra-enabler, by the way; I'm referring to the millions who've bought into his garbage and who will passionately defend the value that they've assigned to him.

[Octafish]

11. How do you make your money?

When you write "Eager Apologists" it sounds like "Fawning Acolytes."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027372927#post130

You know, a smear job.

[Orrex]

12. I get paid a stipend of $5 each time I call out a thread-stalking blowhard.

Know where i can find any?

[Octafish]

13. Thanks.

That's what I figured.

[Orrex]

15. And thank you for another $5

Keep it coming! I get extra points whenever a buffoon accuses me of being mentally ill or engaging in "smear tactics," so you're an absolute goldmine.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. "Some"? I call bullshit on that qualifier. P

[arcane1]

26. Indeed! I wonder if they employed the radon Chopra quote generator?

http://www.wisdomofchopra.com/

[LanternWaste]

8. I apply that same sentiment to pretty much every twentieth century western philosoph

I apply that same sentiment to pretty much every twentieth century western philosophy. From Existentialism to Pyrrhonism, effective commercial branding, a clever t-shirt, and an undisciplined mind are the bread and butter of the charlatan.

[HuckleB]

19. Comparing Chopra to the commercialization of some philosophies/ers makes sense.

Comparing him to the actual philosophers and their work, not so much.

[MrScorpio]

9. I couldn't figure out what he was saying, I had to drop him

He ended up in my feed when I started out on Twitter, as a suggestion to follow by the site for newbies.

Apparently he must have paid good money to get that kind of sponsorship.

Anyway after a few months I decided to focus my feed on mostly music folks and I did a purge, because I only had a limited amount of folks that I could follow. When I went through Chopra's feed I had this genuine WTF moment while reading it. I had pretty much ignored it beforehand.

I still have no idea what he talks about.

[trotsky]

10. No one's posted a link to the Deepak Chopra Quote Generator yet?

http://www.wisdomofchopra.com/

[cpwm17]

14. Maybe if I keep generating more wisdom

I'll generate some never discovered profound truth. I'll keep looking:

"Innocence co creates exponential brightness"

Nop.

"The human nervous system belongs to unparalleled force fields"

Not there either.

"Nature nurtures the barrier of self-knowledge"

Still none.

I'll keep trying

[Monk06]

17. You can also quote anything from the Kryon and Jeshua channelling hustlers or Krishna Murti

[GeorgeGist]

22. Attention & intention are the mechanics of manifestation

[HuckleB]

25. Thanks! -eom-

[arcane1]

27. Damn, you beat me to it!

[valerief]

28. Thanks. This bullshit will help in my new novel. I have a difficult time

thinking illogically with buzzwords like this.

[trotsky]

29. Then you might also like this!

The New Age Bullshit Generator

Edit: Whoops, didn't notice it was posted right below! But it's worth promoting twice, so funny!

[valerief]

31. Thanks. That site provides paragraphs of bullshit.

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. "Perceptual reality is beyond species specific fulfillment" _

[frogmarch]

16. New-Age Bullshit Generator

http://sebpearce.com/bullshit/

sample:

The planet is beaming with pulses.

We self-actualize, we believe, we are reborn. This life is nothing short of a deepening paradigm shift of unlimited awareness.

It is a sign of things to come.

As you self-actualize, you will enter into infinite aspiration that transcends understanding. Alternative medicine may be the solution to what’s holding you back from an unfathomable quantum leap of balance. You will soon be awakened by a power deep within yourself — a power that is technological, non-dual.

Yearning is the antithesis of interconnectedness. Yes, it is possible to extinguish the things that can extinguish us, but not without passion on our side. You must take a stand against desire.

Peace is a constant. Truth requires exploration. Sharing is the nature of nature, and of us.

~~

Okey dokey.

[HuckleB]

41. That thing is addictive. Hmmm.-eom-

[Throd]

21. I have a friend who speaks in nothing but Choprisms.

She is very nice and seems happy, so I am hesitant to criticize her. However, after a half hour of her blather I want to ask "are you capable of saying anything that remotely makes sense?"

[HuckleB]

24. I was surrounded by them at a job in Portland, OR, in the early '90s.

That's when I started drinking heavily.

Correlation, or...? Hmm.

[Glassunion]

48. That's not correlation... Sounds more like causation.

[RobinA]

42. I Have a Friend

who has recently gone this route. I am at a loss. We have been friends for decades, she is very nice, and we like many of the same things, but this stuff drives me crazy. I spend the whole time we are together biting my tongue. She believes this crud and we can't have a conversation that doesn't involve an avalanche of platitudes.

[hunter]

23. Preaching can be a good gig.

There are many preachers spewing bullshit for $$$, including quite a few who claim to be skeptical and scientific.

I'm such a cynical and skeptical son-of-my-mom (b****, in a good way, hi mom!) that I don't get much done or make any big money.

Other than a few evolutionary and other sorts of biologists, geologists, others who have experienced gritty field work, and monomaniacal physicists and mathematicians whose opinions about anything other than their specialty I'd never trust more than to piss on, I'm not certain we humans are an intelligent species. Most all of us reek strongly of superstitions and bigotries, sometimes reeking against human religion and superstition.

Beam me up, Scoty, no intelligent life here.

The universe is very big, the human mind is very small. That's a simple physical reality. We humans, we will never understand. Therefore it's all about being kind to one another and our planet, and pursuing whatever happiness we can find.

In my family heritage we consider ourselves artists, even the scientists and medical people among us. The "scientific method," religion, politics, all of it, it's human art. As a species, in our current development, we'll never truly know more than a fleck of this shit we live in. Everything we might say is the babbling of an infant. You, a baby born in Syria of parents fleeing for survival, you, an affluent child of the U.S.A..

My ancestors ended up in the Americas, mid-nineteenth-century and further back, because European and English authority were abusing them. That's enough, we're out of here. Jump off the boat, swim and run away.

Me, as a research and Cochrane trusted medicine extreme science geek, the only people I have zero tolerance for are people both ignorant and mean, or the venal wealthy and wannabe wealthy.

Some of my favorite people believe in magic or miracles, quartz crystals even, but they are also practical and never of the mean or cruel sorts. They'd celebrate a gay wedding, accept a blood transfusion in dire circumstances, and always vaccinate their kids.

Of the fundamentalist religious or scientific "skeptic" sort, I've encountered far too many mean cruel sorts, and my wife and I are both realistic adult sorts younger family can turn to.

We are sometimes the "bad" aunts and uncles kids can turn to.

I don't know shit about Deepak Chopra, probably because I don't watch television and my internet feeds are almost entirely technical arts.

But I have been skinny-dipping in hot springs with all sorts of people, from strictly-segregated-by-sex religious people, to Gaia celebrating pagans of all sexes, sometimes hitting on me in ways I've had to politely decline.

I happen to find marriage and monogamy a least complicated lifestyle. My grandma's wedding ring had to be cut off her finger when she was dead. Her husband was an autistic spectrum rocket scientist asshole at times.. but i think they both did, overall, good.

My last immigrant ancestor to North Americq was a mail order bride to the newly founded Salt Lake City. She didn't like sharing a husband as a junior wife and ran off with a U.S. government surveyor. Both were twisted. So am I.

My parents, and grandparents, and great grandparents, on both sides, were non-Mormons of the U.S.A. Wild West. Dangerously matriarchal too.

My wife's family is similar, via Mexico, and back as far as Saint Brigid of Ireland and Native American.

Not that any of it matters.

We all own the myths and heresies we live by, or else we are hypocrites.

[HuckleB]

46. You really don't know anything about Chopra?

And yet you want to attempt to engage me in some "deep" conversation?

Come on, honesty matters, and you're really pushing boundaries that are just plain bizarre.

[hunter]

30. Just in case you didn't recognize my offer to play, HuckleB...

... human "reality" is complicated.

I done the math and it's not always pretty.

[HuckleB]

33. No one said it wasn't.

Last edited Tue Dec 1, 2015, 07:41 PM - Edit history (1)

That doesn't mean BS is any less BS. And that's all this OP is about.

[hunter]

36. I've no interest in high fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, or factory farm meat.

[HuckleB]

40. So, don't discuss those issues.

After all, those topics have nothing to do with the OP.

I've had the discussion you seemed to want, over and over again, in fact, many times at DU, especially in the early 2000s. And I could make a further assessment, especially in light of this response, but I'm not going to do so today. Today, I'm cooking, pulling down the last of the decaying plants in the garden, and planning a trip. Sorry.

[Kalidurga]

32. "Wholeness corresponds to ephemeral abstract beauty"

I cheated with the generator. But, to be fair it usually makes more sense than the real thing.

I am glad he is harmless though. He only separates fools from their money. He doesn't advocate violence against people who don't follow his "philosophy".

[SidDithers]

34. This thread needs some Tim Minchin, for balance...

Sid

[HuckleB]

38. Yeah, that's not going to go over well.

Because, you know, it's complicated.

[rufus dog]

37. In early 2000 I made a call on a VC funded company in Beverly Hills

Going in we knew it had something to do with Chopra and setting up a web presence. We get to this great office, meet with some new techies who want our help to implement Oracle Financials and Order Management. They were setting up a new website that would update daily with a new Chopra quote. Users would pay $50 per month to get the daily quote. I likely blew the deal when I asked, for $50 a month you get a daily quote? The response was, users will be able to by books and other stuff from the site too. I couldn't resist and followed with, you get a quote and the ability to buy a book that could be bought for $15 without a membership?

Walking out, my coworker and I decided it was time to sell all tech stocks, because if someone gave millions to that lame start up then the industry was way over extended.

[hatrack]

43. Wow, I don't know what's more surreal in your narrative . . .

Was it (A) people willing to pay for Deepak Chopra quotes, or (B) their business plan?

[Prism]

39. So effective

[Rex]

44. Paid programing is a gas.

Programing lol. How many people rotted their brain away fixated on the idiot box? And now we have the idiot box network.

[HuckleB]

45. Hercules In New York was better. No, really.

But, apparently, no one watched that, either!

[Rex]

47. Dam was that with Arnold and the horrible dubbing job from an Italian import?

Bringing back some fun times!

[HuckleB]

49. Exactly! Saturday afternoon TV! -eom-

[HuckleB]

50. A much better piece on this issue: On skepticism, pseudo-profundity, Deepak Chopra, and bullshit

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/12/02/on-skepticism-pseudo-profundity-deepak-chopra-and-bullshit/