Navigating social systems efficiently is critical to our species. Humans appear endowed with a cognitive system that has formed to meet the unique challenges that emerge for highly social species. Bullshitting, communication characterised by an intent to be convincing or impressive without concern for truth, is ubiquitous within human societies. Across two studies (N = 1,017), we assess participants’ ability to produce satisfying and seemingly accurate bullshit as an honest signal of their intelligence. We find that bullshit ability is associated with an individual’s intelligence and individuals capable of producing more satisfying bullshit are judged by second-hand observers to be more intelligent. We interpret these results as adding evidence for intelligence being geared towards the navigation of social systems. The ability to produce satisfying bullshit may serve to assist individuals in negotiating their social world, both as an energetically efficient strategy for impressing others and as an honest signal of intelligence.

有效地驾驭社会系统对我们这个物种至关重要。人类似乎被赋予了一种认知系统，该系统的形成是为了应对高度社会化物种所面临的独特挑战。胡说八道，其特点是意图令人信服或令人印象深刻，而不关心真相，在人类社会中无处不在。在两项研究中（N = 1,017），我们评估了参与者说出令人满意且看似准确的废话的能力，以此作为他们智力的诚实信号。我们发现，说废话的能力与个人的智力有关，而能够说出更令人满意的废话的人会被二手观察者认为更聪明。我们将这些结果解释为增加了智能面向社会系统导航的证据。产生令人满意的废话的能力可能有助于帮助个人在社交世界中进行谈判，这既是一种给他人留下深刻印象的有效策略，也是一种诚实的智力信号。