Ana Torresarpi
Research Mentor(s): Terri Conley
Mentor Department: Psychology
Authors: Terri Conley, Ana Torresarpi
Session: Session 3 (11:00am – 11:50am)
Presentation Type: Oral
Abstract
This study focuses on the topic of Nescience— the belief that truth is ‘unknowable’ — and its negative consequences. We conducted an experiment with two conditions, where participants watched two videos that contained themes of either empirical fact or subjective and multiple truths. Afterwards, participants filled out questionnaires containing 5-point Likert Scales of Nescience, Conspiracy Theory Beliefs, Pseudo Profound Bullshit, Anti-intellectualism, and Stress. After analyzing the data, we found that we were able to induce nescience through our experimental condition. We also found that Nescience was positively correlated with Conspiracy Theory Beliefs and Pseudo Profound Bullshit. We were not able to find a correlation between anti-intellectualism and stress. These findings will help us greatly when understanding the current post-truth culture and how perceiving the truth as unknowable can lead to poor outcomes.
