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Bulls#!t Studies Lab PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ~ SONA RESEARCH ASSISTANT SCHEDULE CITI TRAINING BULLS#!T STUDIES LAB - Greene Hall 122 The BULLS#!T STUDIES LAB in Attitudes, Social Cognition and Bulls#!tting is in the Department of Psychology at Wake Forest University and is directed by Dr. John V. Petrocelli. Our research focuses on factors associated with how people process and interpret social information, as well as how people are influenced by information in their social environment. We explore these general interests in a number of contexts including persuasion, judgment and decision-making. RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS How to get involved in research as a student: Students can get involved in many aspects of my research including running experiments, coding and entering data, collaborating on research designs, and helping to formalize presentations and publications. Although some students volunteer, it is possible to earn credit for this work by registering for PSY 280 Directed Study. Undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in collaborating with me on research should contact me early in their academic careers so that they can gain experience over more than one semester. The first semester as a research assistant usually involves helping to run an ongoing experiment. However, as the semester progresses, and in subsequent semesters, students may have the opportunity to develop their own ideas and/or collaborate with me on the design of new studies. COMPLETE AN APPLICATION – Download and e-mail to petrocjv@wfu.edu Frequently asked questions: What is Social Cognition? Often regarded as an approach to studying the social world rather than a domain or content area, social cognition is the study of the processes that operate when people encode, store, and retrieve information about the social world. Researchers in social cognition study the procedures, strategies, and problems that people exhibit when they perceive and judge themselves and others. A main theme of social cognition is the biases that may color people’s perceptions and judgments of others. Social cognition is also concerned with the mental shortcuts (or heuristics) that people use to conserve cognitive resources, form judgments, and make decisions. Thus, behavior is often explained by how we use information, what events we pay attention to, how we interpret information, and how we store information in memory. Automatic and controlled processing is also of interest to social cognition. This distinction helps explain the flexibility of the social thinker. The effects of motivation and cognitive load figure prominently on one’s ability to be an accurate social perceiver. How many students work in the lab? Typically, 1-2 graduate students and 3-6 undergraduates work as directed study students or as volunteers. What basic tasks are involved? Lab tasks include formalizing Institutional Review Board (IRB) applications for new studies, development of experimental protocols and stimuli (using in MediaLab, Inquisit, or HTML), data collection with participation pool students, operating SONA (e.g., assigning credit to participation pool students), data entry (a rare task), and writing up the Methods section of a research report. What are the basic time requirements for lab assistants? Lab assistants typically work in the lab about 5 hours each week (see the current lab assistant schedule below). Additional time is often spent outside of the lab in individual meetings to discuss the progress of a project or to conduct library work. What type of experimental software would I learn? We typically use MediaLab, but wealso use Inquisit for studies that require reaction time measures. Would I be involved in any ongoing projects or new studies? In any one semester, we usually have about 3-6 research projects being conducted; all typically at different stages. All students working in the lab are assigned to work on a project that we both agree is suitable given student interests and lab needs. Individual projects will enable the lab to be productive even when data are not being collected. It is hoped that our work together results in publishable contribution (but this is never a guarantee). What specific types of projects are going on in the lab currently? Currently, graduate students and lab assistants are conducting studies on various topics, which include: counterfactual thinking and mental simulation, attitude change and resistance to persuasion, attitudinal ambivalence, forced agreement scaling, and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. Connect with John

Book John To learn more about having John as a keynote speaker for your event, please complete the brief contact form below: Name Email Organization Event date How did you learn about John? Tell us more about your event: Send Thanks for submitting! Connect with John

A provocative speaker, Dr. John V. Petrocelli offers practical and actionable strategies that actually enhance meeting professional and organizational goals. By emphasizing social science and the things that successful organizations do effectively, he shows organizations a clear path to accomplishing their goals. About John As an Experimental Social Psychologist Dr. John V. Petrocelli has the goal of helping organizational leaders better position themselves and their organizations to reach their fullest potential. With strategies rooted in scientific research, that’s exactly what he does, empowering organizational leaders with proven tools for improving communication, strengthening influence, and establishing a foundation of evidence-based management. A provocative and convincing speaker, Dr. Petrocelli offers practical and immediately actionable strategies that actually enhance the chances of successfully meeting professional and organizational goals. By emphasizing social science and the things that successful organizations do consistently and effectively, he shows organizations and their employees a clear path to accomplishing their goals. Dr. Petrocelli offers keynotes and seminars on a variety of leadership, communication, and evidence-based management topics that are critical to high-performance in business management, market intelligence, technology, behavioral design, finance, education, and health care. Curriculum Vitae Connect with John

http://www.johnvpetrocelli.com/ John Petrocelli Keynote Speaker creating no bullshit, better decision-making, organizations “Your BS detector is rusty. It’s time to sharpen it.” —The Wall Street Journal Connect with John V. Petrocelli petrocjv@wfu.edu ©2023 by johnvpetrocelli.com

Publications Disclaimer: Articles provided on this website as pdfs were published by journals and in edited volumes and thus copyrighted to them. These links are intended to facilitate the accepted practice that authors distribute copies of their articles to interested parties for personal use only. No commercial use may be made of the articles nor is mass-production of the articles permitted. Should you download them, you may be violating copyright laws. Books Petrocelli, J. V. (2021). The life-changing science of detecting bullshit . St. Martin’s Press. Publications Petrocelli, J. V., Kiazad, K., Restubog, S. L. D., & Chen, F. X. (in press). A reply to Obenauer (2025): On the empirical distinctions between bullshitting and lying. Group and Organization Management . A Petrocelli, J. V. (in press). Treat bullshit like lies: Practical strategies for disposing the deleterious effects of nonsense and common misinformation. In B. Bowles, Jr., & P. Cook (Eds.), The post-truth handbook: A practical guide to addressing disingenuous rhetorics (pp. 100-112). University of South Carolina Press. Petrocelli, J. V., Rice, E. N., & Curran, J. M. (in press). When fools have greater influence than liars: Testing the insidious bullshit hypothesis with the illusory truth effect. Current Psychology . Petrocelli, J. V. (in press). TED Talks: Are they “ideas worth spreading”? Skeptical Inquirer . Petrocelli, J. V. (2026). Bullfighting in the business arena: Evidence-based strategies for detecting and disposing of organizational bullshit. Organizational Dynamics , 55(2), Article 101231. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2025). Return of the blue books: Grading in the time of artificial intelligence. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning , 57 (4) , 25-28. A Petrocelli, J. V., Li, Y., Wang, E., & Curran, J. M. (2024). Bullshitting and bullibility: Conditions and consequences. Social Psychology , 55 , 262-279. A Petrocelli, J. V., Curran, J. M., & Stall, L. M. (2024). Bullshit can be harmful to your health: Bullibility as a precursor to poor decision making. Current Opinion in Psychology , 55 (1), Article 101769 . A Albarracín, D., Conway, P., Laurent, S., Laurin, K., Manzi, F., Petrocelli, J. V., Rattan, A., Salvador, C. E., Stern, C., Todd, A., Touré-Tillery, M., Wakslak, C., & Zou, X. (2024). Inaugural editorial. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 126 , 1-4. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2023). Persuasive bullshitters a nd the insidious bullshit hypothesis. Skeptical Inquirer , 47 (5), 26-30. A Petrocelli, J. V., Silverman, H. E., & Shang, S. X. (2023 ). Social perception and influence of lies vs. bullshit: A test of the insidious bullshit hypot hesis. Current Psychology , 4 2 , 9609-9617. A Petrocelli, J. V., Seta, C. E., & Seta, J. J. (2023). Lies and bullshit: The negative effects of misinformation grow stronger over time. Applied Cognitive Psychology , 37 , 409-418. A Stall, L. M., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2023). Countering conspiracy theory beliefs: Understanding the conjunction fallacy and considering disconfirming evidence. Applied Cognitive Psychology , 37 , 266-276. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2022). Politically oriented bullshit detection: Attitudinally conditional bullshit receptivity and bullshit sensitivity. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations , 25 , 1635-1652. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2021). Bullshitting and persuasion: The persuasiveness of a disregard for the truth. British Journal of Social Psychology , 60 , 1464-1483. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2021). Expert bullshit detection. Skeptic , 26 (3), 47-53. A Vohs, K. D., Schmeichel, B. J., Lohmann, S., Gronau, Q. F., Finley, A., ... Petrocelli, J. V., ... & Albarracín, D. (2021). A multi-site preregistered, paradigmatic test of the ego depletion effect. Psychological Science , 32 , 1566-1581. A Petrocelli, J. V., Watson, H. F., & Hirt, E. R. (2020). Self-regulatory aspects of bullshitting and bullshit detection. Social Psychology , 51 , 239-253. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2020). Bullshit and its detection: The conditions under which common, everyday bullshit is most likely to emerge. Skeptic , 25 (2), 50-55. A Street, R. L., Petrocelli, J. V., Amroze, A., Bergelt, C., Murphy, M., Wieting, J. M., & Mazor, K. M. (2020). How communication “failed” or “saved the day”: Counterfactual accounts of medical errors. Journal of Patient Experience , 7 , 1247-1254. A Taha, A. E., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2020). Advertising opinions. Tulsa Law Review , 56 , 77-108. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2018). Antecedents of bullshitting. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 76 , 249-258. A Petrocelli, J. V., & Whitmire, M. B. (2017). Emotion decoding and incidental processing fluency as antecedents of attitude certainty. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 43 , 924- 939. A Petrocelli, J. V., Rubin, A. L., & Stevens, R. L. (2016). The sin of prediction: When mentally simulated alternatives compete with reality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 42 , 1635-1652. A Petrocelli, J. V., Williams, S. A., & Clarkson, J. J. (2015). The bigger they come, the harder they fall: The paradoxical effect of regulatory depletion on attitude change. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 58 , 82-94. A Petrocelli, J. V., Kammrath, L. K., Brinton, J. E., Uy, M. R., Cowens, D. F. L. (2015). Holding on to what might have been may loosen (or tighten) the ties that bind us: A counterfactual potency analysis of previous dating alternatives. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 56 , 50-59. A Seta, C. E., Seta, J. J., Petrocelli, J. V., & McCormick, M. (2015). Even better than the real thing: Alternative outcome bias affects decision judgments and decision regret. Thinking and Reasoning , 21 , 446-472. A Taha, A. E., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2015). Disclosures about disclosures: Can conflict of interest warnings be made more effective? Journal of Empirical Legal Studies , 12 , 236-251. A Dowd, K. W., Petrocelli, J. V., & Wood, M. T. (2014). Integrating information from multiple sources: A metacognitive account of self-generated and externally-provided anchors. Thinking and Reasoning , 20 , 315-332. A Taha, A. E., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2014). Sending mixed messages: Investor interpretations of disclosures of analyst stock ownership. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law , 20 , 68-77. A Petrocelli, J. V., Clarkson, J. J., Whitmire, M. B., & Moon, P. E. (2013). When ab ≠ c – c’: Published errors in the reports of single mediator models. Behavior Research Methods , 45 , 595- 601. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2013). Pitfalls of counterfactual thinking in medical practice: Preventing errors by using more functional reference points. Journal of Public Health Research , 2 , 136-143. A Petrocelli, J. V., Seta, C. E., & Seta, J. J. (2013). Dysfunctional counterfactual thinking: When simulating alternatives to reality impedes experiential learning. Thinking and Reasoning , 19 , 205-230. A Petrocelli, J. V., Seta, C. E., & Seta, J. J. (2012). Prefactual potency: The perceived likelihood of alternatives to anticipated realities. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 38 , 1467- 1479. A Petrocelli, J. V., Seta, C. E., Seta, J. J., & Prince, L. B. (2012). "If only I could stop generating counterfactual thoughts": When counterfactual thinking interferes with academic performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 48 , 1117-1123. A Petrocelli, J. V., & Harris, A. K. (2011). Learning inhibition in the Monty Hall Problem: The role of dysfunctional counterfactual prescriptions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 37 , 1297-1311. A Petrocelli, J. V., Percy, E. J., Sherman, S. J., & Tormala, Z. L. (2011). Counterfactual potency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition , 100 , 30-46. A Petrocelli, J. V., Clarkson, J. J., Tormala, Z. L., & Hendrix, K. S. (2010). Perceiving stability as a means to attitude certainty: The role of implicit theories of attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 46 , 874-883. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2010). Validity of research conclusions. In N. J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of research design (Vol. 3, pp. 1596-1599). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. A Petrocelli, J. V., Martin, J. L., & Li, W. Y. (2010). Shaping behavior through malleable self-perceptions: A test of the forced-agreement scale effect (FASE). Journal of Research in Personality , 44 , 213-221. A Petrocelli, J. V., & Sherman, S. J. (2010). Event detail and confidence in gambling: The role of counterfactual thought reactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 46 , 61-72. A Petrocelli, J. V., & Crysel, L. C. (2009). Counterfactual thinking and confidence in blackjack: A test of the counterfactual inflation hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 45 , 1312-1315. A Petrocelli, J. V., & Dowd, K. (2009). Ease of counterfactual thought generation moderates the relationship between need for cognition and punitive responses to crime. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 35 , 1179-1192. A Sherman, J. W., Kruschke, J. K., Sherman, S. J., Percy, E. J., Petrocelli, J. V., & Conrey, F. R. (2009). Attentional processes in stereotype formation: A common model for category accentuation and illusory correlation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition , 96 , 305-323. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2008). [Review of the book Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed.)]. Journal of Social Psychology , 148 , 775-777. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2007). The utility of a computer-assisted power analysis lab instruction. Teaching of Psychology , 34 , 248-252. A Kay, A. C., Jost, J. T., Mandisodza, A. N., Sherman, S. J., Petrocelli, J. V., & Johnson, A. L. (2007). Panglossian ideology in the service of system justification: How complementary stereotypes help us to rationalize inequality. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 39, pp. 305-358). Academic Press. A Petrocelli, J. V., Tormala, Z. L., & Rucker, D. D. (2007). Unpacking attitude certainty: Attitude clarity and attitude correctness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition , 92 , 30-41. A Johnson, A. L., Crawford, M. T., Sherman, S. J., Rutchick, A. M., Hamilton, D. L., Ferreira, M., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2006). A functional perspective on group memberships: Differential need fulfillment in a group typology. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 42 , 707-719. A Petrocelli, J. V., & Smith, E. R. (2005). Who I am, who we are, and why: Links between emotions and causal attributions for self and group-discrepancies. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 31 , 1628-1642. A Glaser, B. A., Calhoun, G. B., Petrocelli, J. V., Bates, J. M., & Owens-Hennick, L. A. (2005). Depression and somatic complaints among male juvenile offenders: Differentiating somatizers from non-somatizers with the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI). Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology , 16 , 566-576. Cohen, P. J., Glaser, B. A., Calhoun, G. B., Bradshaw, C. P., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2005). Examining readiness for change: A preliminary evaluation of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA) with a male incarcerated adolescent sample. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development , 38 , 45-62. Strano, D. A., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2005). A preliminary examination of the role of inferiority feelings in the academic achievement of college students. Journal of Individual Psychology , 61 , 80-89. Trusty, J., Thompson, B., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2004). Practical guide for reporting effect size in the Journal of Counseling & Development. Journal of Counseling and Development , 82 , 107-110. Scarborough, Z., Glaser, B. A., Calhoun, G. B., Stefurak, J., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2004). Clusterderived groupings of the Behavior Assessment System for Children among male juvenile offenders. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation , 39 , 1-17. Petrocelli, J. V. (2003). Hierarchical multiple regression in counseling research: Common problems and possible remedies. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development , 36 , 9-22. A Petrocelli, J. V., Calhoun, G. B., & Glaser, B. A. (2003). The role of general family functioning in the quality of the mother-daughter relationship of female African American juvenile offenders. Journal of Black Psychology , 29 , 378-392. Petrocelli, J. V. (2003). Factor validation of the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale: Evidence for a short version. Journal of Social Psychology , 143 , 405-413. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2002). Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Where’s the ambivalence? American Psychologist , 57 , 443-444. A Petrocelli, J. V. (2002). More on the consequences of savage reviews. APS Observer , 15 (2), 7. Petrocelli, J. V. (2002). Effectiveness of group cognitive-behavioral therapy for general symptomatology: A meta-analysis. Journal for Specialists in Group Work , 27 , 92-115. Petrocelli, J. V. (2002). Processes and stages of change: Counseling with the transtheoretical model of change. Journal of Counseling and Development , 80 , 22-30. A Glaser, B. A., Calhoun, G. B., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2002). Personality characteristics of male juvenile offenders by adjudicated offenses as indicated by the MMPI-A. Criminal Justice and Behavior , 29 , 183-201. Glaser, B. A., Campbell, L. F., Calhoun, G. B., Bates, J. M., & Petrocelli, J. V. (2002). The Early Maladaptive Schema Questionnaire–Short Form: A construct validity study. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development , 35 , 2-13. Petrocelli, J. V., Glaser, B. A., Calhoun, G. B., & Campbell, L. F. (2001). Personality and affect characteristics of outpatients with depression. Journal of Personality Assessment , 77 , 162-175. Petrocelli, J. V., Glaser, B. A., Calhoun, G. B., & Campbell, L. F. (2001). Cognitive schemas as mediating variables of the relationship between the self-defeating personality and depression. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment , 23 , 183-191. Petrocelli, J. V., Glaser, B. A., Calhoun, G. B., & Campbell, L. F. (2001). Early maladaptive schemas of personality disorder subtypes. Journal of Personality Disorders, 15, 546-559. Petrocelli, J. V. (2000). [Review of the book Scientist-practitioner perspectives on test interpretation]. Psychotherapy: Theory/Research/Practice/Training , 37 , 106. Connect with John

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Resources VIEW RESOURCE Organizational Bullshit Perception Scale Learn more about how much bullshit your organization may be surrounded by bullshit with the OBPS (Ferreira, Hannah, McCarthy, Pitt, & Ferguson, 2022). VIEW RESOURCE Book Discussion Guide for The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit A book discussion guide for a book now being used with high school students in AP English classes. VIEW RESOURCE Bullshit Detection Quiz Most everyone believes they have a good bullshit detector. Let's see how you fare on our test. VIEW RESOURCE Weighted-Additive Model Calculator If you have multiple decision alternatives with multiple features that vary in their importance, the W-ADD model calculator is a wonderful friend to have. VIEW RESOURCE Financial Facts Survey Most every finance expert believes they have a good finance bullshit detector. Let's see how you fare on the FBBTS (Kienzler, Västfjäll, & Tinghög, 2022) . VIEW RESOURCE Financial Meaningful Statements Survey Most every finance expert believes they have a good finance bullshit detector. Let's see how you fare on the FBSS (Kienzler, Västfjäll, & Tinghög, 2022) . Connect with John

Business Leadership BS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2023 | COMMENT If today’s leaders aim to transform the world amidst the abundance of leadership failures, frequent career setbacks, and workplaces poisoned by disengaged and mistrusting employees, they’ll need to start considering the cold, hard facts of reality and transcend the dangerous half-truths and self-serving narratives that dominate the leadership mythos. Many of the commonly espoused conventional ideas about leadership are founded more on optimism than empirical evidence, on desires rather than factual information, and on convictions rather than scientific rigor. It is not only impera- tive to challenge much of this conventional wisdom but also to conduct a scientific inquiry into the functioning of leadership—both its strengths and shortcomings—and provide leaders, both current and future, with evidence-based guidelines. People frequently embrace the feel-good narratives surrounding leadership without critical examination, which hinders their grasp of reality and their ability to effect positive change. The counsel that leaders/managers receive from the extensive and ever-expanding pool of business leadership literature, articles, experts, and consultants is remarkably inconsistent. Consider the following contradictory recommendations extracted directly from popular business books: Select a charismatic CEO / Opt for a humble CEO. Embrace complexity theory / Aim for simplicity. Transition into a strategy-focused organization / Minimize the time invested in strategic planning due to its limited value. In fact, the more one digs into this, the more perplexing and confounding it all becomes. For instance, Simon Sinek’s most promoted claims, such as his “Golden Circle” concept, which centers around the idea of “Starting with Why,” have been popular in the realm of leadership and motivational speaking. However, the extent of empirical evidence supporting his claims can vary, and it’s essential to consider that his work is more conceptual and based on observations rather than empirical scientific research. While Sinek’s ideas have resonated with many people and organizations and have been applied in practical settings, they are not necessarily grounded in rigorous scientific research. His concepts are more anecdotal and provide a framework for thinking about leadership, motivation, and communication. It’s important to acknowledge that the field of leadership and motivation is vast, with various theories and models, and there isn’t one universally accepted approach. Therefore, the value of Sinek’s claims depends on how well they resonate with your personal or organizational values and goals. But, if you’re looking for empirical evidence in the field of leadership and motivation, you may want to explore academic research, studies, and theories that have been subject to more rigorous scientific scrutiny. While Sinek’s ideas can be inspiring and thought-provoking, they may not always have the same level of empirical support as theories developed through formal research. Marketplace of Business Ideas The wonderful thing about the marketplace of business ideas is that it’s full of ideas. The problem with the marketplace of business ideas is that it’s full of ideas based on very shaky evidence, if any evidence at all. How do business leaders know how to evaluate these ideas, how to know which are correct and which will work for them, and how to know which ones to really invest in? Seriously, whom should we believe with so many clashing ideas that are all pitched as the only management solutions we’ll ever need? Here are just a few of the ever-increasing number of books on business leadership development: What They Teach You at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism vs. What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School: Notes from a Street-smart Executive Grow Global: Using International Protocol to Expand Your Business vs. Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less Never Ever, Ever Give Up: An Inspiring True Story about Leadership, Commitment, Resiliency, Happiness and Making Your Dreams Come True vs. Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away Charisma: Seven Keys to Developing the Magnetism That Leads to Success vs. Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing Leading the Revolution: How to Thrive in Turbulent Times by Making Innovation a Way of Life vs. Managing for the Short Term: The New Rules for Running a Business in a Day-to-Day World Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends vs. Business Is Combat: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Winning in Modern Business Warfare The Peaceable Kingdom: Building a Company Without Factionalism, Fiefdoms, Fear and Other Staples of Modern Business vs. Capitalizing on Conflict: Strategies and Practices for Turning Conflict to Synergy in Organizations Managing by Measuring: How to Improve Your Organization’s Performance Through Effective Benchmarking vs. Managing with Passion: Making the Most of Your Job and Your Life The Quest for Authentic Power: Getting Past Manipulation, Control, and Self-Limiting Beliefs vs. What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies vs. Corporate Failure by Design: Why Organizations Are Built to Fail In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies vs. The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everything Out of the Box: Strategies for Achieving Profits Today and Growth Tomorrow through Web Services vs. Thinking Inside the Box: The 12 Timeless Rules for Managing a Successful Business Seriously—there is a business leadership book with the title “Thinking Inside the Box”? What might our 3rd grade art teacher think about this? What's even more troubling is that, due to the challenge of distinguishing sound advice from poor counsel, managers are consistently lured into adopting flawed business methodologies. This is exacerbated by the fact that consultants and other purveyors of ideas and techniques are primarily incentivized to secure business, occasionally acknowledged for delivering quality services, and rarely assessed on whether their advice genuinely improves performance. The incentive structure can even be more counterproductive, as a consulting firm may benefit from only partially resolving a client company's issues, which paves the way for additional engagements. Despite the extensive literature, online content, blogging and public speaking on leadership, as well as the billions of dollars in financial investments poured into the leadership development advice industry every year, it is quite evident that these efforts have yielded minimal success in transforming workplaces or enhancing individuals’ career achievements. On one side, we witness an ever-expanding leadership industry encompassing a vast array of resources such as books, articles, speeches, workshops, blogs, conferences, training programs, and corporate leadership development initiatives. These resources have been in existence for many years, fostering a fairly consistent set of research-backed suggestions for enhancing group and organizational performance. These recommendations include, among others, the importance of leaders inspiring trust, exhibiting authenticity, practicing honesty, prioritizing service to others, especially their colleagues, displaying humility and self-effacement, demonstrating empathetic understanding and emotional intelligence, and other similarly sensible guidelines. However, on the flip side, there is a wealth of compelling evidence pointing to workplaces filled with disengaged and dissatisfied employees who lack trust in their leaders. Their most commonly expressed desire is to seek alternative employment opportunities. The consequence of this dichotomy is twofold: dysfunctional workplaces are prevalent, and leaders themselves face challenges, including shorter job tenures and an increasing likelihood of experiencing career setbacks and terminations. The leadership development advice industry has failed. Despite having good intentions, there is scant proof that any of the suggestions and recommendations of the loudest voices have yielded favorable outcomes. And, I’m not the only one to see this. Barbara Kellerman, a professor specializing in leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School and the creator of the Center for Public Leadership, concurs. She has recently stated that the field of leadership studies “has failed over its roughly forty-year history to in any major, meaningful, measurable way improve the human condition” and that “the rise of leadership as an object of our collective fascination has coincided precisely with the decline of leadership in our collective estimation.” A significant issue arises from the fact that a substantial portion of leadership training and development has transformed into a kind of casual sermonizing. It involves narrating inspiring tales of remarkable leaders and exceptional organizations, which, in turn, momentarily boost the spirits of the audience without causing substantial alterations in the typical workplace dynamics. Empirical studies show that relying on inspiration as the primary basis for effecting substantial change is highly ineffective. This also sheds light on why and how the leadership anecdotes we encounter, which frequently lack substantial validity, tend to exacerbate situations, potentially to a significant degree. In fact, there is evidence indicating that, on occasion, it is reasonable for leaders aiming to progress in their careers to consider taking an opposing approach to conventional prescriptions. No Obstacles to Entering the Leadership Development Advice Industry A major issue that contributes to the limited progress in workplaces and career development is the complete absence of any barriers to entry in the leadership sector. No formal qualifications, rigorous research, comprehension of pertinent scientific data, or any other prerequisites are necessary to establish one’s credibility as a leadership authority. It's open to all – anyone can author a book, engage as a leadership speaker or blogger, provide consulting and guidance, or establish a leadership development or consulting company. On certain occasions, it appears that almost everyone ventures into this field. Celebrity status and fame can also catapult one’s attempt to gain a share on the leadership development advice industry. From what I can gather, there appears to be little correlation between possessing substantial knowledge about leadership and achieving success as a leadership expert. To illustrate this point with just one of the many instances that come to mind, a group in search of a leadership speaker for a conference informed me that they selected a particular speaker because, as per an insider from the selection committee, she was charismatic and visually appealing. Such common anecdotes align with the perspective that a significant portion of leadership education, whether in academic settings or within corporate environments and at the numerous conferences and conventions, prioritizes delivering entertainment, or “edutainment”, rather than truly aiding leaders or addressing workplace issues. 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Teaching PSY 260 Social Psychology PSY 311 Research Methods in Psychology I PSY 355 Research in Social Psychology PSY 374 Research in Judgment and Decision Making PSY 392 Contemporary Issues in Psychology - Mental Simulation PSY 392 Contemporary Issues in Psychology - Implicit Social Cog PSY 392 Contemporary Issues in Psychology - Misinformation, BSing, and Calling BS PSY 752 Seminar in Social Psychology Connect with John

Keynote Speaker As an Experimental Social Psychologist Dr. John V. Petrocelli has the goal of helping organizational leaders better position themselves and their organizations to reach their fullest potential. With strategies rooted in scientific research, that’s exactly what he does, empowering organizational leaders with proven tools for improving communication, strengthening influence, and establishing a foundation of evidence-based management. A provocative and convincing speaker, Dr. Petrocelli offers practical and immediately actionable strategies that actually enhance the chances of successfully meeting professional and organizational goals. By emphasizing social science and the things that successful organizations do consistently and effectively, he shows organizations and their employees a clear path to accomplishing their goals. Dr. Petrocelli offers keynotes and seminars on a variety of leadership, communication, and evidence-based management topics that are critical to high-performance in business management, market intelligence, technology, behavioral design, finance, education, and health care. Take a look at his keynote speaking topics below and let us kno w how John can tailor these ideas to your needs. Planning a virtual event? Click here to learn more . Featured Topics THE LIFE-CHANGING SCIENCE OF DETECTING BULLS#!T From every angle, whether it be from colleagues, meetings, or the marketplace of business ideas, business leaders constantly encounter bulls#!t that plagues their judgments, beliefs, and decisions. Short of lying, the sources of bulls#!t pay no attention to truth, evidence, or established knowledge, and use a broad array of rhetorical strategies to sound like they know what they are talking about when their obligations to provide an opinion far exceed their actual knowledge. How informed can beliefs about anything—and decisions based on those beliefs—be if they are based on bulls#!t-reasoning and communication? How can bulls#!t in the workplace be better detected and disposed? This session directly addresses commonly encountered bulls#!t in the workplace and its unwanted effects in the ways of better detection, better disposal, and better decisions. PROMOTING AN EVIDENCE-BASED CULTURE IN THE WORKPLACE What is bulls#!t and why is there so much of it? What effects does bulls#!t have on workplace communication and how can its unwanted effects be replaced by the many benefits of evidence-based communication? Apart from choosing to be smarter, there are critical benefits that, Dr. John Petrocelli suggests, our current way of thinking and communicating in the workplace often ignores. It’s time to stop the bulls#!t with better detection and better disposal of this insidious communicative substance. Based on Dr. Petrocelli’s latest TEDx Talk, Why BS is More Dangerous Than a Lie, his own empirical research, and his new book, The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit , Dr. Petrocelli presents an eye-opening, groundbreaking, and evidenced-based tour of the causes, dysfunctions, and costs of bullshit, showing how it operates in our communicative culture and how you can make significantly better decisions in the workplace. We’ve long assumed that bullshitting is a harmless social activity. Perhaps this is why it is such a common social activity. In fact, research shows there are over three dozen situations and reasons people bulls#!t in the workplace. However, social psychological research suggests we couldn’t be more wrong. Bulls#!t communications, at the expense of evidence-based communication, have devastating effects on beliefs about what is true, memory, attitudes and opinions, as well as judgment and decision making. Dr. Petrocelli explores causes of bullshitting, how to best detect bullshit in the workplace, how to properly dispose of it, and how best to replace bullshit reasoning and communication with its antithesis—evidence-based reasoning and communication. THE ARTS AND SCIENCES OF PERSUASION AND INFLUENCE AT WORK Buy-ins on ideas and best practices do not occur on their own. Without buy-in from the team, any leader is just another tuned-out voice. That is why the single greatest ability that a leader can develop in the ways of selling a product, motivating a team, or growing a company is their ability to communicate persuasively. Dr. John Petrocelli is an experimental social psychologist and an expert on attitudes and persuasion. In this talk based on his empirical research, Dr. Petrocelli takes the audience on a journey to understanding principles of influence and the best alpha and omega strategies of social influence proven to reduce resistance and improve persuasion. In order for things to emerge as best practices within an organization you have to know the behavioral science in order to hone your messages properly and understand how these factors have the greatest impact, leading to the greatest persuasive success. Coming from someone who actually conducts empirical research on the topics of persuasion and influence, he’ll share simple strategies, based on scientific research and proven effective for how to maximize influence and inoculate the established influence from unwanted influences in the way of establishing and promoting best practices. BEST PRACTICE DECISION MAKING THROUGH EVIDENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT Dr. John Petrocelli is an experimental social psychologist and an expert in judgment and decision making and one of the world’s foremost experts on evidence-based communication. He is a firm believer in the well-established belief that better information does not always lead to better judgment and decision-making, but that better judgment and decision-making almost always requires better information. Clearly, reaching successful outcomes in organizations will require halting some common ways of making decisions that are so widely accepted and recommended that they are rarely questioned, yet deeply flawed, such as casual benchmarking other organizations, false analogies that pass for best practices, and dogmatism of deeply endorsed, but unexamined ideologies. Yet, there is good news for leaders and their organizations, because every day there are opportunities to use better information to gain advantages over their competition. Doing so simply entails using evidence-based management. The foundations of evidence-based management are the scientifically-supported assertions that recognizing much of the conventional wisdom about management is built on dangerous half-truths, using better logic, employing facts to the extent possible, facing the hard facts about what works and what doesn’t, and rejecting total nonsense that too often passes for sound advice, all empower leaders and organizations to perform better. As Dr. Petrocelli will show you, the practice of evidence-based management is neither mysterious nor extraordinarily difficult to implement. More importantly, evidence-based management produces superior results. Even better, evidence-based management can generate sustained competitive advantages because so few organizations and their leaders do it—let alone do it well—that the probability of imitation will not be high. Previous Clients Include Pohl Consulting and Training, Inc Contact To learn more about having John as a keynote speaker for your event, please complete the brief contact form below: Name Email Organization Event date How did you learn about John? Tell us more about your event: Send Thanks for submitting! Connect with John

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