That Facebook friend of yours needs inspiration, probably isn't too bright.

Batman? Wait--I can be Batman?

The journal article, written by PhD candidate Gordon Pennycook from the University of Waterloo, is titled succinctly and bluntly and beautifully:

On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit

An empirical study on bullshit! By a man named Pennycook, too! Christmas morning came early to all of us.

In the study, Pennycook and four fellow researchers argue that there is a correlation between low intelligence and the embracing of profound quotes, the likes of which you see populating your Facebook newsfeed--which is to say they're not very profound at all.

To accomplish this, Pennycook had 300 participants read wonderfully inspiring quotes, rate them on a scale of 1-to-5, and classify those statements as either profound, mundane, or bullshit. An example inspirational quote offered up for participants to judge was along the likes of, "Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty." I don't know about you, but I just felt a shiver down my spine.

Pennycook also had these same participants tested on their overall cognitive abilities in order to detect intelligence. The results?

Those who claimed such a statement as total bullshit showed higher cognitive abilities. Or, put another way, those who found such a quote as profound...didn't show such abilities.

I'm beating around the bush. Boiled down, your friend on Facebook posting those quotes is not only emotionally fragile, they are sort of, uh, special--in the way only a parent can love.