Is Your Bullshit Meter Working Okay?

Episode 13 of The Building Bridges Series
A 3-minute read

You’ve probably noticed that you have your own built-in “bullshit meter”—that intuitive sense that tells us when something’s off, when someone’s exaggerating, or when information doesn’t quite add up. When it’s working well, this internal alarm helps us navigate a world full of misinformation, manipulation, and outright lies.

But here’s the problem: the very things we’ve been discussing throughout this blog series—our Lizard Brain reactions, our worldview filters, our confirmation bias, our tribal loyalties—can seriously compromise our ability to detect BS. Worse, they can make us extremely good at spotting BS from “them” while being completely blind to it from “us.”

When Your Meter Gets Hijacked

Remember our discussion about the Lizard Brain? It operates on quick intuition, making snap judgments about safety and threat. This speed is useful when you’re avoiding an actual predator, but less helpful when evaluating political claims on Facebook.

If someone from our tribe makes a questionable claim, our Lizard Brain whispers “friend”—and our BS meter stays suspiciously quiet. But let someone from the opposing tribe say the exact same thing, and suddenly our internal alert system starts blaring like a car alarm outside your window at 3 a.m.

Consider conspiracy theories. Take your pick—claims about election fraud, vaccine dangers, climate change denial, or deep state/Project 2025 plots. Notice how your BS meter responds differently depending on which “side” is making the claim? That’s not your internal detector working objectively—that’s your tribal identity and confirmation bias running the show.

Where We Need Working BS Meters

A functioning BS detector is crucial across many situations:

Media and news: Filtering through clickbait, misinformation, and biased reporting

Personal relationships: Detecting insincerity, dishonesty, or emotional manipulation

Advertising and sales: Identifying exaggeration and inflated claims

Online content: Navigating spam, scams, and determining what’s trustworthy

Political messaging: Recognizing when politicians (from any party) are evading questions, spreading misinformation, or making promises they can’t keep

The Social Media Problem

Here’s the reality of social media: Everyone Is A Publisher. But with no editors, no fact-checkers, and no way to determine a writer’s credibility, knowledge, experience, honesty, or judgment, we’re drowning in unfiltered information. And yet we soak it up.

Your BS meter should be working overtime online, but instead, it’s often lulled to sleep by the comfortable echo chamber of people who think like you do. Posts that confirm your worldview get liked and shared. Posts that challenge it get dismissed as “fake news” or propaganda—often without serious evaluation.

Recalibrating Your Meter

So how do you tune up a BS meter that’s been compromised by your Lizard Brain and tribal loyalties?

Trust your intuition—carefully. Your gut feeling, developed through past experiences, is valuable. If something “feels off,” investigate further. But be honest: are you reacting to the content or to who’s saying it? Would you have the same reaction if someone from your tribe said it?

Learn the warning signs. Common tells include: emotional arguments instead of rational ones, changing the subject when asked for details, exaggeration, vague or manipulative language, and refusal to engage with skeptics. These signs should trigger your meter regardless of the source.

Practice critical thinking. Question the source of information. Evaluate the strength of arguments. Ask clarifying questions. Check whether claims are supported by verifiable evidence, not just by people who already agree with you.

Develop discernment about sources. Consciously decide which sources and individuals have earned your trust through accuracy and honesty over time. But stay alert—even trusted sources can get things wrong or let bias creep in.

Beware of leading language. Watch for questions and statements designed to lead you to a predetermined conclusion rather than engage in honest inquiry. “Don’t you think it’s obvious that…” is usually a red flag.

Resources (But Use Them Wisely)

Fact-checking sites like Snopes.com can help verify claims, and there are even AI tools designed to evaluate BS. (And yes, there’s an app for that.) But here’s the catch: these resources are useless if your BS meter hasn’t signaled that something needs checking in the first place.

And with the firehose of information we receive daily, you can’t come anywhere close to checking everything. That’s why recalibrating your internal meter is more important than any external tool.

The Hardest Truth

The most difficult part of maintaining a working BS meter is this: you have to be willing to catch BS from your own side. You have to be willing to feel that uncomfortable twinge when someone you agree with politically makes a claim that doesn’t hold up. You have to be willing to fact-check the viral post that confirms what you already believe.

As we discussed in our post about beautiful questions, you need to be open to the possibility that you might be wrong. Your BS meter can’t function properly if it’s only pointed outward at “them” and never inward at “us.”

Next time you feel your BS meter activate, pause and ask: Is this triggered by what’s being said, or by who’s saying it? Would I be equally skeptical if this claim came from someone I trust? Am I applying the same standards to information that confirms my beliefs as I am to information that challenges them?

Your BS meter is one of your most valuable tools for navigating our complex information environment. But like any tool, it only works well if you maintain it honestly—and use it on everyone, including yourself.

Up Next:
“Grievance: Our National Obsession“