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The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time
From the New York Times bestselling author of Mastermind, a compelling investigation into the minds, motives, and methods of con artists—and the people who fall for their cons over and over again
While cheats and swindlers may be a dime a dozen, true conmen—the Bernie Madoffs, the Jim Bakkers, the Lance Armstrongs—are elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. How do they do it? Why are they successful? And what keeps us falling for it, over and over again? These are the questions that journalist and psychologist Maria Konnikova tackles in her mesmerizing new book.
From multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes to small-time frauds, Konnikova pulls together a selection of fascinating stories to demonstrate what all cons share in common, drawing on scientific, dramatic, and psychological perspectives. Insightful and gripping, the book brings readers into the world of the con, examining the relationship between artist and victim. The Confidence Game asks not only why we believe con artists, but also examines the very act of believing and how our sense of truth can be manipulated by those around us.
While cheats and swindlers may be a dime a dozen, true conmen—the Bernie Madoffs, the Jim Bakkers, the Lance Armstrongs—are elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. How do they do it? Why are they successful? And what keeps us falling for it, over and over again? These are the questions that journalist and psychologist Maria Konnikova tackles in her mesmerizing new book.
From multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes to small-time frauds, Konnikova pulls together a selection of fascinating stories to demonstrate what all cons share in common, drawing on scientific, dramatic, and psychological perspectives. Insightful and gripping, the book brings readers into the world of the con, examining the relationship between artist and victim. The Confidence Game asks not only why we believe con artists, but also examines the very act of believing and how our sense of truth can be manipulated by those around us.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 657 reviews
February 10, 2017
When I was in my mid-teens I came home from school one day to find my father reading a letter. He asked me to look at it, and it was a badly typed message full of misspellings that was my first encounter with the Nigerian prince con although I didn’t know it at the time.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“It’s a scam,” I replied.
At that point he actually got irritated with me and started pointing out a bunch of reasons why it could be legitimate. I was beyond shocked that the man who had constantly told me things like “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” and “If it’s too good to be true then it probably is.” would seriously be considering answering this letter. If I, an idiot teenager, could see it was a fraud then why wouldn’t a pragmatic adult recognize that? Eventually the letter got tossed in the trash without Dad sending the Nigerian prince any money.
Years later, when I was about twenty, I had a coworker approach me with a no-risk way to make some money. He laid out a deal he’d gotten into where you kicked in cash and then convinced others to contribute which moved you up a ladder where you would eventually make like 10 times your original investment.
“That’s a pyramid scheme,” I said. “It’s illegal, and it’ll blow up in someone’s face eventually.”
He got extremely angry, told me that I was turning down free money and went on to recruit a bunch of other people we worked with. It was part of a trend that had swept the area, and inevitably a whole lot of people I worked with lost a bunch of cash.
I’ve puzzled over those two incidents a lot since then because I could never understand how I could see that these things were scams while others seemed eager and willing to throw their money into them. I chalked it up to my inherent cynicism and being a fan of crime novels. After reading this I have a much better understanding of why people fall for cons, and why they refuse to admit that they even are cons. To be honest I’ve often patted myself on the back when reflecting about them. See, I told myself, you’re much too smart to fall for that.
However, thanks to this book I now realize that I’ve also at least twice over the years fallen for a classic when I was approached on the street by women with small children who needed some help. (“I’m so sorry to ask this, but I forgot my purse and I’m almost out of gas. Is there any way you could possibly loan me….”) And even though I had some slight misgivings at the time it was only while reading this that I realized that I had for sure been taken, and that like a lot of people I hadn’t learned my lesson after the first one. Oops. Well, at least my stupidity only amounts to about $20 while some suckers have lost much more than that and then went back for more.
That’s part of what makes this an interesting read. When most of us hear about people getting swindled we usually think it’s just greed and stupidity on the part of the marks, and we have the smug satisfaction of knowing that we would surely never fall for such a thing. Maria Konnikova uses a variety of psychological studies to illustrate how that’s exactly what the victims thought, too.
She highlights how people are essentially hard wired to trust otherwise society would just be every person with their back against a wall with a knife in hand. We also have the deep seated belief that each of us is special, we're surely owed a break, and that we’re shrewd enough to make the most of it when it happens. Combine that with the human tendency to refuse to admit mistakes, and it makes all of us potential rubes.
What makes this entertaining and not just informative is the deft way that Konnikova mixes fascinating true stories of cons to highlight the behaviors she’s discussing, and then she backs that up with the scientific research of the studies which often show startling tendencies.
For example, people usually decide that they're right about something and then cherry pick facts to support their beliefs. This often leads to people digging in their heels in the face of overwhelming evidence so that they won’t even admit to being scammed. The book highlights one man in New York around 1900 who ran a forerunner to the Ponzi scheme and was so successful that people were still lining up outside his office to give him money even after he had been exposed in the papers and had fled with the money. In fact, even after he was arrested and convicted many remained convinced that he was legitimate, and it was the newspapers who ruined the whole thing. (Which also shows that blaming the media for bad news is a very old trick.)
All in all this is a fascinating account of not just the psychology of what makes people susceptible to cons, it’s also an excellent window into the weird ways our minds make us idiots.
Now, I’ve got a nice bridge in Brooklyn for sale if anyone is interested….
“What do you think?” he asked.
“It’s a scam,” I replied.
At that point he actually got irritated with me and started pointing out a bunch of reasons why it could be legitimate. I was beyond shocked that the man who had constantly told me things like “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” and “If it’s too good to be true then it probably is.” would seriously be considering answering this letter. If I, an idiot teenager, could see it was a fraud then why wouldn’t a pragmatic adult recognize that? Eventually the letter got tossed in the trash without Dad sending the Nigerian prince any money.
Years later, when I was about twenty, I had a coworker approach me with a no-risk way to make some money. He laid out a deal he’d gotten into where you kicked in cash and then convinced others to contribute which moved you up a ladder where you would eventually make like 10 times your original investment.
“That’s a pyramid scheme,” I said. “It’s illegal, and it’ll blow up in someone’s face eventually.”
He got extremely angry, told me that I was turning down free money and went on to recruit a bunch of other people we worked with. It was part of a trend that had swept the area, and inevitably a whole lot of people I worked with lost a bunch of cash.
I’ve puzzled over those two incidents a lot since then because I could never understand how I could see that these things were scams while others seemed eager and willing to throw their money into them. I chalked it up to my inherent cynicism and being a fan of crime novels. After reading this I have a much better understanding of why people fall for cons, and why they refuse to admit that they even are cons. To be honest I’ve often patted myself on the back when reflecting about them. See, I told myself, you’re much too smart to fall for that.
However, thanks to this book I now realize that I’ve also at least twice over the years fallen for a classic when I was approached on the street by women with small children who needed some help. (“I’m so sorry to ask this, but I forgot my purse and I’m almost out of gas. Is there any way you could possibly loan me….”) And even though I had some slight misgivings at the time it was only while reading this that I realized that I had for sure been taken, and that like a lot of people I hadn’t learned my lesson after the first one. Oops. Well, at least my stupidity only amounts to about $20 while some suckers have lost much more than that and then went back for more.
That’s part of what makes this an interesting read. When most of us hear about people getting swindled we usually think it’s just greed and stupidity on the part of the marks, and we have the smug satisfaction of knowing that we would surely never fall for such a thing. Maria Konnikova uses a variety of psychological studies to illustrate how that’s exactly what the victims thought, too.
She highlights how people are essentially hard wired to trust otherwise society would just be every person with their back against a wall with a knife in hand. We also have the deep seated belief that each of us is special, we're surely owed a break, and that we’re shrewd enough to make the most of it when it happens. Combine that with the human tendency to refuse to admit mistakes, and it makes all of us potential rubes.
What makes this entertaining and not just informative is the deft way that Konnikova mixes fascinating true stories of cons to highlight the behaviors she’s discussing, and then she backs that up with the scientific research of the studies which often show startling tendencies.
For example, people usually decide that they're right about something and then cherry pick facts to support their beliefs. This often leads to people digging in their heels in the face of overwhelming evidence so that they won’t even admit to being scammed. The book highlights one man in New York around 1900 who ran a forerunner to the Ponzi scheme and was so successful that people were still lining up outside his office to give him money even after he had been exposed in the papers and had fled with the money. In fact, even after he was arrested and convicted many remained convinced that he was legitimate, and it was the newspapers who ruined the whole thing. (Which also shows that blaming the media for bad news is a very old trick.)
All in all this is a fascinating account of not just the psychology of what makes people susceptible to cons, it’s also an excellent window into the weird ways our minds make us idiots.
Now, I’ve got a nice bridge in Brooklyn for sale if anyone is interested….
March 30, 2023
Why do we fall for what con artists are selling?
The older I get, the more I realize that unless I actively try to stay engaged, I'm going to slip slowly out of the loop when it comes to...everything.
I know this because I'm starting to see friends my age fall for dumb shit on the regular. Everything from getting upset over Onion articles, to those copy and paste unless you want Facebook to steal your pictures, to giving more money than they can afford to some preacher in skinny jeans.
And I know I'm only an asshair away from ending up just like them.
So I'm going to read. And I'm going to try to expand my knowledge base. And I'm going to try not to turn into a complete parody of myself.
Which is how this book caught my eye.
Ok ok ok.
This is nowhere near the point of this, but there is always ONE THING that sticks with me when I close a book, and this was the thing that was (to me) the craziest takeaway.
And now I feel that have to share it with you.
You're welcome.
You know those poorly worded, grammatical nightmare, obviously bullshit emails or DMs that you get every now and then? You probably thought that the scammer was an idiot. I mean, I did.
But Konnikova says that this kind of scam is geared toward a specific audience. The internet has made access to so many people at one time a problem for the scammer. Yes. The net gets cast too wide in a lot of instances.
Those insanely stupid messages that scream RED FLAG are phrased that way on purpose to weed out anyone who has a few brain cells rubbing together. You read that correctly. They don't want you, they want your inbred cousin.
In other words, the only people who are going to respond to that message are already too stupid to realize that it's a scam.
Yeah! Holy shit.
How genius is that?!
Now don't get too cocky just because you managed to avoid giving out your bank information to that Microsoft employee who called to let you know your computer was in the process of being hacked OR the IRS agent who was authorized to make a deal with you so that you don't lose your house over unpaid taxes.
You have been scammed.
Don't shake your head no.
Did you buy that weight loss book that told you if you tossed all of your meals into a blender and drank the calories instead of chewing the calories, you'd lose weight?
Hits a little close to home, doesn't it?
But don't worry, everyone gets conned eventually, so you're in good company.
The thing is that anyone given the right circumstances can and will fall for some sort of scam. Because we want to believe that there is easy money to be had, we want to believe that someone would instantly fall in love with us for no reason, and we want to believe that we can hit our goal weight by changing absolutely nothing at all and with zero inconvenience to ourselves.
And there are alllll kinds of scams out there.
Psychic, mediums, tarot card readers - there's a reason in a lot of countries it is illegal to "practice" this sort of thing without the for entertainment purposes only disclaimer.
They are scammers.
Yes, they are.
Uh-huh, all of them.
Yup, even that one.
Konnikova found that people who are religious are at higher risk to scams.
Why? Because they are already primed to believe in a higher power that will grant them things they don't earn/deserve.
They may even believe that due to an earlier prayer for love or financial help that perhaps God put this person in their lives.
Don't take this to mean that because you believe in a God/gods you are a special kind of idiot. Just take it as a fair warning that some very unscrupulous people may use that belief to prey on you in a different way from non-believers. It's not fair, it's not nice, and you shouldn't fall for it.
On the flip side, Konnikova's other observation is that everything that makes someone susceptible to a con artist (optimism and trust) is also what almost certainly guarantees that your life will be better and more fulfilling than someone who is convinced that everyone is out to get them.
What?!
Yes. Because the truth is that most of the people you meet aren't trying to steal your life savings. And the people who are open-hearted, trusting, and want to see the best in the world will most certainly live happier lives.
I guess the lesson is to try and recognize when something is simply too good to be true but forgive yourself when you fall for something.
There are plenty of stories about famous con artists, along with other data that I found incredibly interesting. Just the psychology of the scam, the scammers,and the victims of the scam was fascinating.
Konnoikova's writing style was pretty accessible, as well. I'm going to dig around and see what else she's written.
Recommended!
The older I get, the more I realize that unless I actively try to stay engaged, I'm going to slip slowly out of the loop when it comes to...everything.
I know this because I'm starting to see friends my age fall for dumb shit on the regular. Everything from getting upset over Onion articles, to those copy and paste unless you want Facebook to steal your pictures, to giving more money than they can afford to some preacher in skinny jeans.
And I know I'm only an asshair away from ending up just like them.
So I'm going to read. And I'm going to try to expand my knowledge base. And I'm going to try not to turn into a complete parody of myself.
Which is how this book caught my eye.
Ok ok ok.
This is nowhere near the point of this, but there is always ONE THING that sticks with me when I close a book, and this was the thing that was (to me) the craziest takeaway.
And now I feel that have to share it with you.
You're welcome.
You know those poorly worded, grammatical nightmare, obviously bullshit emails or DMs that you get every now and then? You probably thought that the scammer was an idiot. I mean, I did.
But Konnikova says that this kind of scam is geared toward a specific audience. The internet has made access to so many people at one time a problem for the scammer. Yes. The net gets cast too wide in a lot of instances.
Those insanely stupid messages that scream RED FLAG are phrased that way on purpose to weed out anyone who has a few brain cells rubbing together. You read that correctly. They don't want you, they want your inbred cousin.
In other words, the only people who are going to respond to that message are already too stupid to realize that it's a scam.
Yeah! Holy shit.
How genius is that?!
Now don't get too cocky just because you managed to avoid giving out your bank information to that Microsoft employee who called to let you know your computer was in the process of being hacked OR the IRS agent who was authorized to make a deal with you so that you don't lose your house over unpaid taxes.
You have been scammed.
Don't shake your head no.
Did you buy that weight loss book that told you if you tossed all of your meals into a blender and drank the calories instead of chewing the calories, you'd lose weight?
Hits a little close to home, doesn't it?
But don't worry, everyone gets conned eventually, so you're in good company.
The thing is that anyone given the right circumstances can and will fall for some sort of scam. Because we want to believe that there is easy money to be had, we want to believe that someone would instantly fall in love with us for no reason, and we want to believe that we can hit our goal weight by changing absolutely nothing at all and with zero inconvenience to ourselves.
And there are alllll kinds of scams out there.
Psychic, mediums, tarot card readers - there's a reason in a lot of countries it is illegal to "practice" this sort of thing without the for entertainment purposes only disclaimer.
They are scammers.
Yes, they are.
Uh-huh, all of them.
Yup, even that one.
Konnikova found that people who are religious are at higher risk to scams.
Why? Because they are already primed to believe in a higher power that will grant them things they don't earn/deserve.
They may even believe that due to an earlier prayer for love or financial help that perhaps God put this person in their lives.
Don't take this to mean that because you believe in a God/gods you are a special kind of idiot. Just take it as a fair warning that some very unscrupulous people may use that belief to prey on you in a different way from non-believers. It's not fair, it's not nice, and you shouldn't fall for it.
On the flip side, Konnikova's other observation is that everything that makes someone susceptible to a con artist (optimism and trust) is also what almost certainly guarantees that your life will be better and more fulfilling than someone who is convinced that everyone is out to get them.
What?!
Yes. Because the truth is that most of the people you meet aren't trying to steal your life savings. And the people who are open-hearted, trusting, and want to see the best in the world will most certainly live happier lives.
I guess the lesson is to try and recognize when something is simply too good to be true but forgive yourself when you fall for something.
There are plenty of stories about famous con artists, along with other data that I found incredibly interesting. Just the psychology of the scam, the scammers,and the victims of the scam was fascinating.
Konnoikova's writing style was pretty accessible, as well. I'm going to dig around and see what else she's written.
Recommended!
September 23, 2016
I wasn't wowed by this book, slow beginning.... uses pseudo science to back up some of its claims and it really doesn't offer any advice in how to avoid getting scammed .. so what was the point .... I read a 300 page book just to be told what I already know , people who want to believe are the ones who get lied to ..... really is this new? ....
April 16, 2016
“We aren’t robbers, you and I. To rob a fool, you don’t need knives: Just flatter him, tell him sweet lies, And he is yours for life. ”
Before i start reviewing this book i want you to understand what doesn the word "con man" mean ! A man who cheats or tricks someone by gaining their trust and persuading them to believe something that is not true. It’s all about manipulating someone’s beliefs, Con artists are evil human beings, with malicious intentions and no conscience sounds familiar ? oh yeah Donald Fucking Dump, This book is an exploration of the psychological principles that underlie each and every game, from the most elementary to the most involved, step by step, from the moment the endeavor is conceived to the aftermath of its execution.
The confidence game—the con—is an exercise in soft skills. Trust, sympathy, persuasion. The true con artist doesn’t force us to do anything; he makes us complicit in our own undoing. He doesn’t steal. We give. He doesn’t have to threaten us. We supply the story ourselves. We believe because we want to, not because anyone made us. And so we offer up whatever they want—money, reputation, trust, fame, legitimacy, support—and we don’t realize what is happening until it is too late.
According to the author, The confidence game starts with basic human psychology. From the artist’s perspective, it’s a question of identifying the victim (the put-up): who is he, what does he want, and how can I play on that desire to achieve what I want? It requires the creation of empathy and rapport (the play): an emotional foundation must be laid before any scheme is proposed, any game set in motion. Only then does it move to logic and persuasion (the rope): the scheme (the tale), the evidence and the way it will work to your benefit (the convincer), the show of actual profits. And like a fly caught in a spider’s web, the more we struggle, the less able to extricate ourselves we become (the breakdown). By the time things begin to look dicey, we tend to be so invested, emotionally and often physically, that we do most of the persuasion ourselves. We may even choose to up our involvement ourselves, even as things turn south (the send), so that by the time we’re completely fleeced (the touch), we don’t quite know what hit us. The con artist may not even need to convince us to stay quiet (the blow-off and fix); we are more likely than not to do so ourselves. We are, after all, the best deceivers of our own minds. At each step of the game, con artists draw from a seemingly endless toolbox of ways to manipulate our belief. And as we become more committed, with every step we give them more psychological material to work with.
Before i start reviewing this book i want you to understand what doesn the word "con man" mean ! A man who cheats or tricks someone by gaining their trust and persuading them to believe something that is not true. It’s all about manipulating someone’s beliefs, Con artists are evil human beings, with malicious intentions and no conscience sounds familiar ? oh yeah Donald Fucking Dump, This book is an exploration of the psychological principles that underlie each and every game, from the most elementary to the most involved, step by step, from the moment the endeavor is conceived to the aftermath of its execution.
The confidence game—the con—is an exercise in soft skills. Trust, sympathy, persuasion. The true con artist doesn’t force us to do anything; he makes us complicit in our own undoing. He doesn’t steal. We give. He doesn’t have to threaten us. We supply the story ourselves. We believe because we want to, not because anyone made us. And so we offer up whatever they want—money, reputation, trust, fame, legitimacy, support—and we don’t realize what is happening until it is too late.
According to the author, The confidence game starts with basic human psychology. From the artist’s perspective, it’s a question of identifying the victim (the put-up): who is he, what does he want, and how can I play on that desire to achieve what I want? It requires the creation of empathy and rapport (the play): an emotional foundation must be laid before any scheme is proposed, any game set in motion. Only then does it move to logic and persuasion (the rope): the scheme (the tale), the evidence and the way it will work to your benefit (the convincer), the show of actual profits. And like a fly caught in a spider’s web, the more we struggle, the less able to extricate ourselves we become (the breakdown). By the time things begin to look dicey, we tend to be so invested, emotionally and often physically, that we do most of the persuasion ourselves. We may even choose to up our involvement ourselves, even as things turn south (the send), so that by the time we’re completely fleeced (the touch), we don’t quite know what hit us. The con artist may not even need to convince us to stay quiet (the blow-off and fix); we are more likely than not to do so ourselves. We are, after all, the best deceivers of our own minds. At each step of the game, con artists draw from a seemingly endless toolbox of ways to manipulate our belief. And as we become more committed, with every step we give them more psychological material to work with.
January 26, 2016
Why is the 'oldest profession in the world' the con-man? Why do perfectly educated and intelligent people fall for cons that are immediately obvious to onlookers? And how did people like Bernie Madoff lure hordes of people? Maria Konnivova dives deep into the art of the con: the steps that lead up to it, and those aspects of human psychology that con-men exploit. Our ability to trust, our circumstances in life, our belief that something exceptional *can* happen to us, our over-exaggerated optimism all make us good victims. And since a lot of these are what help us navigate through life, we are all potential victims.
The book is generously peppered with anecdotes that do not fail to get your head shaking in disbelief. Yet, at some point, the book begins to drag its feet: every anecdote follows the same template, and we all know where it's going. We have also heard about many of the psychological tricks Konnikova describes in other books in the field: the nudge, the optimism, the strong tendency to prevent regret. To someone who has read her share of behavioral economics books, this one quickly becomes repetitive.
So, the big question: will my reading this book protect me? Can I now spot a conman? Probably not. If there's one thing Konnikova leaves you with, it's that our desire to believe in a narrative can make us vulnerable than we know we are, even when we choose to stay on guard.
The book is generously peppered with anecdotes that do not fail to get your head shaking in disbelief. Yet, at some point, the book begins to drag its feet: every anecdote follows the same template, and we all know where it's going. We have also heard about many of the psychological tricks Konnikova describes in other books in the field: the nudge, the optimism, the strong tendency to prevent regret. To someone who has read her share of behavioral economics books, this one quickly becomes repetitive.
So, the big question: will my reading this book protect me? Can I now spot a conman? Probably not. If there's one thing Konnikova leaves you with, it's that our desire to believe in a narrative can make us vulnerable than we know we are, even when we choose to stay on guard.
March 5, 2016
Good but... repetitive, and as others have mentioned, oddly organized. Could have been shorter by a third. The research is there--interesting and impressive--but no bibliography or footnotes. An easy, even breezy, read but for the repetition, the constant circling back.
November 25, 2015
This book has a wealth of information about those who con and those who are conned. It’s also easy to understand. But it’s not organized in the reader’s best interest. It’s organized in a way that best suits the author, who has no problem continuously jumping around from century to century, and who can easily remember every con mentioned in the book. That’s a shame, too, because Ms. Konnikova's book could have been a better help to the general public. Although when it comes right down to it, most people are not conned in their lifetime in major ways. Yes, everyone will buy lies here, there and everywhere, but not the type of lies that end up costing them substantial money or alter their lives. No, we don’t fall for it every time.
(Note: I received a free copy of this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.)
(Note: I received a free copy of this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.)
November 13, 2015
There's nothing like a good scam. I love scams in books and movies -- Ocean's Eleven, Catch Me If You Can, The Sting. I suspect I'd be a lot less charmed if I were to encounter one in real life though.
I feel simultaneously prepared for scams and resigned to being a dupe after reading Maria Konnikova's The Confidence Game. She describes different types of scams and cons with plenty of examples. People who have impersonated others, grifters, shell game artists, they're all here, and it's fascinating. She explains how they pull off their operations and why people fall for them.
It's great to know how the psychics and fast talking pitchmen play on our weaknesses, and even intelligent people who are nobody's fool can fall for these hucksters. Because -- psychology. They play on our trust, our vulnerability, our fears, and sometimes we're weak and they really move in. They tell us what we want to hear, promise us what we secretly want. Konnikova concludes that we actually might be better off, psychologically, to be more trusting than more suspicious overall. Not exactly the advice I was hoping for, but I can see her point.
Lots of great scam stories, and some food for thought as well. (And look for the YouTube video Konnikova describes of trickster Derren Brown paying New York merchants with blank paper while distracting them with chit chat. Pricelesss!)
I feel simultaneously prepared for scams and resigned to being a dupe after reading Maria Konnikova's The Confidence Game. She describes different types of scams and cons with plenty of examples. People who have impersonated others, grifters, shell game artists, they're all here, and it's fascinating. She explains how they pull off their operations and why people fall for them.
It's great to know how the psychics and fast talking pitchmen play on our weaknesses, and even intelligent people who are nobody's fool can fall for these hucksters. Because -- psychology. They play on our trust, our vulnerability, our fears, and sometimes we're weak and they really move in. They tell us what we want to hear, promise us what we secretly want. Konnikova concludes that we actually might be better off, psychologically, to be more trusting than more suspicious overall. Not exactly the advice I was hoping for, but I can see her point.
Lots of great scam stories, and some food for thought as well. (And look for the YouTube video Konnikova describes of trickster Derren Brown paying New York merchants with blank paper while distracting them with chit chat. Pricelesss!)
July 2, 2018
Whenever we read about some con job that nets a sucker or ten, the first thing across our minds is: how could they possibly have fallen for that? It's such an obvious scam! What were they thinking?
According to psychologist/author Maria Konnikova, they were thinking the same way we would. In their shoes, we'd have been saps, too.
In the 1950s, linguist David Maurer called confidence men the "aristocrats of crime." Unlike most other crimes, the con requires us to become willing participants in our own fleecing. Ridiculous? Maybe in the abstract. But as the author points out, time and time again the victims of con games go out of their way to help the grifter take them to the cleaners, then fail to notify the police or even refuse to admit they've been taken.
The author divides her narrative into ten chapters, the middle eight of which focus on each step of the long con (the kind that takes days or weeks to unfold, like in The Sting). In each chapter, she pins the text to a particular scam that best illustrates the concepts in that chapter; for instance, in "The Tale" (about the importance of narrative in promoting a con), she follows the story of a college professor duped into smuggling drugs by a woman he thought had fallen for him. She uses academic studies, psychological analysis, the views of lawmen and con men alike, and the examples of other cons to show why a particular trick works.
In short: we as a species became what we are by evolving certain societal traits -- trust, empathy, optimism, faith, a need to feel special (ego), a yen for material or spiritual enrichment (greed), an inability to understand statistics (see "optimism") and a reluctance to believe in the worst-case scenario (see "faith"). Confidence wo/men are both uniquely able to find these traits in other people and powerfully inclined to exploit them without experiencing a lot of angst about it. They prey on belief, on faith, and on greed; that old saw "you can't cheat an honest man" has more than a little truth to it. However, it can also be said that the entrepreneur is the ideal mark, because s/he is more than most a creature of optimism, ego, faith and greed.
The object of a con is nearly always money or power. Satan was the first grifter, and Eve was the first mark; he told her a story that played on her ego, optimism, greed and faith, she went all-in, and she ended up losing her home. Advertising is a form of con job, with the tools of the ad man being the same as those of the grifter, though the former's remuneration comes a bit more indirectly. Pyramid schemes are cons, and so were Enron, the mortgage industry in 2007, religious cults, and nationalist politics at just about any time. They all play on belief and all those other traits that make us human and social creatures, then turn it against us.
Despite being an academic, Konnikova writes clearly and engagingly, with a pleasant shortage of fifty-cent words and specialist cant. The case studies she uses are varied enough to not induce deja vu from one chapter to the next. While Charles Ponzi (of the eponymous scheme) and Frank Abagnale (he of Catch Me If You Can) get name-checked, it's likely you won't have heard of most of the scams she uses as case studies, which are drawn from over a hundred years of bad behavior. Where'd the fifth star go? The author often doesn't know when to quit while she's ahead, so she's prone to repeating her arguments until you have them embedded in your brain.
The Confidence Game isn't meant to be a casual read; you need to really want to understand con men and what they do at the office every day. If you do want that, though, it's an excellent primer on how and why cons work. It's also a big, fat injection of empathy for the suckers, who at bottom are guilty of little more than being human. Reading this book may not stop you from getting taken, but at least you'll understand why you let it happen.
According to psychologist/author Maria Konnikova, they were thinking the same way we would. In their shoes, we'd have been saps, too.
In the 1950s, linguist David Maurer called confidence men the "aristocrats of crime." Unlike most other crimes, the con requires us to become willing participants in our own fleecing. Ridiculous? Maybe in the abstract. But as the author points out, time and time again the victims of con games go out of their way to help the grifter take them to the cleaners, then fail to notify the police or even refuse to admit they've been taken.
The author divides her narrative into ten chapters, the middle eight of which focus on each step of the long con (the kind that takes days or weeks to unfold, like in The Sting). In each chapter, she pins the text to a particular scam that best illustrates the concepts in that chapter; for instance, in "The Tale" (about the importance of narrative in promoting a con), she follows the story of a college professor duped into smuggling drugs by a woman he thought had fallen for him. She uses academic studies, psychological analysis, the views of lawmen and con men alike, and the examples of other cons to show why a particular trick works.
In short: we as a species became what we are by evolving certain societal traits -- trust, empathy, optimism, faith, a need to feel special (ego), a yen for material or spiritual enrichment (greed), an inability to understand statistics (see "optimism") and a reluctance to believe in the worst-case scenario (see "faith"). Confidence wo/men are both uniquely able to find these traits in other people and powerfully inclined to exploit them without experiencing a lot of angst about it. They prey on belief, on faith, and on greed; that old saw "you can't cheat an honest man" has more than a little truth to it. However, it can also be said that the entrepreneur is the ideal mark, because s/he is more than most a creature of optimism, ego, faith and greed.
The object of a con is nearly always money or power. Satan was the first grifter, and Eve was the first mark; he told her a story that played on her ego, optimism, greed and faith, she went all-in, and she ended up losing her home. Advertising is a form of con job, with the tools of the ad man being the same as those of the grifter, though the former's remuneration comes a bit more indirectly. Pyramid schemes are cons, and so were Enron, the mortgage industry in 2007, religious cults, and nationalist politics at just about any time. They all play on belief and all those other traits that make us human and social creatures, then turn it against us.
Despite being an academic, Konnikova writes clearly and engagingly, with a pleasant shortage of fifty-cent words and specialist cant. The case studies she uses are varied enough to not induce deja vu from one chapter to the next. While Charles Ponzi (of the eponymous scheme) and Frank Abagnale (he of Catch Me If You Can) get name-checked, it's likely you won't have heard of most of the scams she uses as case studies, which are drawn from over a hundred years of bad behavior. Where'd the fifth star go? The author often doesn't know when to quit while she's ahead, so she's prone to repeating her arguments until you have them embedded in your brain.
The Confidence Game isn't meant to be a casual read; you need to really want to understand con men and what they do at the office every day. If you do want that, though, it's an excellent primer on how and why cons work. It's also a big, fat injection of empathy for the suckers, who at bottom are guilty of little more than being human. Reading this book may not stop you from getting taken, but at least you'll understand why you let it happen.
April 18, 2020
After 30th page, I have no patience to go on. Best it's over.
August 1, 2021
I enjoyed thus far far less than I did the poker book. Part of it was that some of the research shared was identical (hot hand fallacy, probability of a coin flip, a few others), part of it was that I’d heard several of these con stories before (Glafira Rosales’ con is a Netflix documentary I’d already watched, for instance). I also found a lot of these studies no more insightful than your typical detective show about why con men are successful. It was good to see there was science behind it, I guess, but a lot of this is common sense and the premise of many stories I’ve already read. And so the story element of this was not successful- which, she she herself points out, is how most people emotionally respond to things- a good yarn. The yarns didn’t get me. (Whereas the poker one definitely did.) I also don’t know how this book is useful, in the end. A lot of the conclusions she comes to are based on the fact that people are social animals who largely trust each other. We’re built to trust each other. We have to- there’s no way to have a society without it. Con men play on that trust. And like.. we can’t start treating everyone like they are possible con men. And the other conclusion she comes to is that education and money do not protect you from falling for con men. Again, okay, but that’s just advising a healthy skepticism I think most of us know we should have already. Trust, but verify, etc.
Maybe the only useful takeaway from this is that people who are playing to your desire to feel special, who pop out of nowhere and appeal to your vanity, who offer you an association with special things even, should be checked into. We’re all more vulnerable in the vanity than we want to admit to being. And we should watch out for that.
Maybe the only useful takeaway from this is that people who are playing to your desire to feel special, who pop out of nowhere and appeal to your vanity, who offer you an association with special things even, should be checked into. We’re all more vulnerable in the vanity than we want to admit to being. And we should watch out for that.
September 5, 2018
Maria Konnikova is an expert on con artists. A year or so ago, she did a podcast based on this book called “The Grift,” which is the original name for a Ponzi scheme. She’s also a frequent guest on Mike Pesca’s podcast in a regular feature they call, “Is That Bulls***t?” So I went into this book with a fair bit of familiarity with what she’d say, but I really recommend both the book and the podcast. There’s definitely overlap, but there are also unique stories in each, and let’s face it: there’s something delicious in learning about the elaborate hoaxes that con artists put together.
People always think they’d never be so stupid as to fall for a con artist, but what both the book and the podcast make clear is that it can happen to any of us. The podcast illustrated the point with a story about a Chinese graduate student who got bilked of her tuition money by a psychic who promised to help her with her love life. Now falling for a “psychic” is something most people feel especially immune to, but consider how lonely it would feel to be in a foreign country, far away from your family, and having to built up a social circle from scratch. If a kind-hearted person entered your life with promises of help, wouldn’t you be tempted? The vulnerability of the victim is the key, and at one time or another, we’ve all been vulnerable.
What the book added to this insight is how well-constructed most confidence schemes actually are. A respected art dealer, for example, was repeatedly tricked by a forger because both the paintings and the sales pitch were that good. If there’s money to be made, somebody somewhere will put plenty of time and effort into crafting as foolproof a scheme as possible.
When con artists fail, it’s usually because they overreach. Konnikova says there’s a triad of character traits that every con artist possesses: a Machiavellian attitude (they’ll do anything), nonchalance (they don’t care who or how many people they hurt), and narcissism (they believe in their abilities and their right to behave this way.) It’s the narcissism that does them in. They get to believing in their abilities so much, they think they’ll never get caught.
Fundamentally, this is a book about psychology in which quirky true crime stories are the case studies. I think most people would find it fascinating, though the middle part draws heavily on the work of behavioral psychologists Kahaneman and Twersky, so that part, if you’re already familiar with their work, drags a bit. For me, the most interesting part was the final chapter, which is about religion and cults. I wish there had been more discussion of that kind of exploitation and less of the Ponzi schemes. But the main thing to remember is not to disdain others for falling for a con or to feel ashamed if you’ve been the victim. A whole lot of people have been conned by the rigged swamp that Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Fox News have built up. As it crumbles and people wake up, we ought to understand the dupes and help them through. Understanding and cooperation are the only ways we’ll ever restore democracy.
People always think they’d never be so stupid as to fall for a con artist, but what both the book and the podcast make clear is that it can happen to any of us. The podcast illustrated the point with a story about a Chinese graduate student who got bilked of her tuition money by a psychic who promised to help her with her love life. Now falling for a “psychic” is something most people feel especially immune to, but consider how lonely it would feel to be in a foreign country, far away from your family, and having to built up a social circle from scratch. If a kind-hearted person entered your life with promises of help, wouldn’t you be tempted? The vulnerability of the victim is the key, and at one time or another, we’ve all been vulnerable.
What the book added to this insight is how well-constructed most confidence schemes actually are. A respected art dealer, for example, was repeatedly tricked by a forger because both the paintings and the sales pitch were that good. If there’s money to be made, somebody somewhere will put plenty of time and effort into crafting as foolproof a scheme as possible.
When con artists fail, it’s usually because they overreach. Konnikova says there’s a triad of character traits that every con artist possesses: a Machiavellian attitude (they’ll do anything), nonchalance (they don’t care who or how many people they hurt), and narcissism (they believe in their abilities and their right to behave this way.) It’s the narcissism that does them in. They get to believing in their abilities so much, they think they’ll never get caught.
Fundamentally, this is a book about psychology in which quirky true crime stories are the case studies. I think most people would find it fascinating, though the middle part draws heavily on the work of behavioral psychologists Kahaneman and Twersky, so that part, if you’re already familiar with their work, drags a bit. For me, the most interesting part was the final chapter, which is about religion and cults. I wish there had been more discussion of that kind of exploitation and less of the Ponzi schemes. But the main thing to remember is not to disdain others for falling for a con or to feel ashamed if you’ve been the victim. A whole lot of people have been conned by the rigged swamp that Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Fox News have built up. As it crumbles and people wake up, we ought to understand the dupes and help them through. Understanding and cooperation are the only ways we’ll ever restore democracy.
June 26, 2022
Should be a hit with people who have a passing interest in cons and psychology, but I was hoping for something a little more focused. The writing constantly switches back and forth from super dense and breezily anecdotal, which tired me out a lot by the halfway point. 2.5/5 or so
August 10, 2021
Una obra absolutamente estupenda que mezcla a la perfección historias de estafadores y de la estafa, con los principios psicológicos subyacentes, y un estilo de narración absolutamente magistral. Me ha encantado.
El libro se estructura en torno a los pasos que da una estafa, de modo que los efectos psicológicos implicados quedan más claramente resaltados, y ejemplificados. De este modo es fácil seguir el desarrollo de una estafa que, como toda forma de persuasión, se ayuda de un principio base: que creemos lo que queremos creer, y el estafador no hace sino explotarlo.
Ha sido una gran idea incluirlo como bibliografía en el libro que estoy escribiendo. No puedo recomendarlo más.
El libro se estructura en torno a los pasos que da una estafa, de modo que los efectos psicológicos implicados quedan más claramente resaltados, y ejemplificados. De este modo es fácil seguir el desarrollo de una estafa que, como toda forma de persuasión, se ayuda de un principio base: que creemos lo que queremos creer, y el estafador no hace sino explotarlo.
Ha sido una gran idea incluirlo como bibliografía en el libro que estoy escribiendo. No puedo recomendarlo más.
June 7, 2016
I was drawn to this book because I recently came thisclose to buying into a multi-level marketing scheme and, as a result, felt compelled to learn more about why we are all susceptible to manipulation and persuasion by con artists. I thought Maria Konnikova's explanations of the psychology and methods of cons/scams were engaging and well-researched. I particularly enjoyed the detailed true stories of cons, both recent and historic, and Konnikova's ability to link her findings to general statements about human nature. While other reviewers have (fairly) criticized Konnikova's writing for being repetitive and hard to follow, I was impressed by how much she has improved since writing Mastermind.
Main takeaway:
"Con artists, at their best and worst, give us meaning. We fall for them because it would make our lives better if the reality they proposed were indeed true. The give us a sense of purpose, of value, of direction... Ultimately, what a confidence artist sells is hope. Hope that you'll be happier, healthier, richer, loved, accepted, better looking, younger, smarter, a deeper, more fulfilled human being–hope that the you that will emerge on the other side will be somehow superior to the you that came in."
Main takeaway:
"Con artists, at their best and worst, give us meaning. We fall for them because it would make our lives better if the reality they proposed were indeed true. The give us a sense of purpose, of value, of direction... Ultimately, what a confidence artist sells is hope. Hope that you'll be happier, healthier, richer, loved, accepted, better looking, younger, smarter, a deeper, more fulfilled human being–hope that the you that will emerge on the other side will be somehow superior to the you that came in."
April 1, 2021
This book is a thorough and absolutely fascinating exploration of human psychology and the traits we all harbor (to some degree) that make us vulnerable to exploitation and trickery. It explores not only the foibles con artists exploit to get us to trust them (as well as to take from us what they want, once that trust is earned), but also the powerful impulse we have to disbelieve that we could have been duped. Psychological research (if not intuition) shows that it's far easier to reaffirm the probity of the person who wronged us than to admit we were chumps.
Ego is a powerful thing, and most of us fancy ourselves above average in most capacities, something that in the aggregate is mathematically impossible--the Lake Wobegon effect, it's called. The mind cannot really cope with evidence that tends to undermine the powerful, baseline assumptions we have about the skill with which we are navigating the world (and that others so sorely lack), and so we negate it, even absent all glaring evidence suggesting we're the dummies. Konnikova explores ur-Ponzi schemes, demonstrating that even after the con artists had left the country with people's life savings for no conceivable reason other than to escape accountability for a clear scam, having paid out ludicrous dividends up until that point, those who had clearly been taken threatened violence to anyone who dared question the con artists' legitimacy and even hoped to double down on their poor choices, as soon as the con artist returns once this is all sorted out, of course.
It also talks about how people who are down on their luck and desperate are the easiest and most effective marks for the talented con artist. Sadly, it was published in 2015, right before the ascent of Donald Trump (though of course he was a famous con artist before his successful foray into presidential politics), and so it does not mention this greatest con artist of our times (but I have plans to find her twitter account in search of her analysis). But it does explain why people like coal miners in West Virginia, having found the person they thought was their savior, who promised them impossible things and an exit from their desperate situations, having seen no dissipation of their misery, double down and support this man who has used them and played them as fools even more so in 2020 than in 2016. It's not too different from the ways that holy rollers have been cheating the poor and exploiting their misery since time immemorial. These subjects are expected, given the book's subject matter, but some of the others--such as the guy who conned his way into the top position on a Korean warship without any expertise, and then performed miraculous feats that any talented doctor would have been proud of--are interesting and notable for the insights into the motivations and methods of not only the imposters themselves, but their pliant marks.
I've been extolling this book because it's a condensed and fascinating look into our intricate and quirky minds, why we do the nonsensical things we do and how none of us is immune, no matter how wise or shrewd we fancy ourselves to be. Highly recommended!
Ego is a powerful thing, and most of us fancy ourselves above average in most capacities, something that in the aggregate is mathematically impossible--the Lake Wobegon effect, it's called. The mind cannot really cope with evidence that tends to undermine the powerful, baseline assumptions we have about the skill with which we are navigating the world (and that others so sorely lack), and so we negate it, even absent all glaring evidence suggesting we're the dummies. Konnikova explores ur-Ponzi schemes, demonstrating that even after the con artists had left the country with people's life savings for no conceivable reason other than to escape accountability for a clear scam, having paid out ludicrous dividends up until that point, those who had clearly been taken threatened violence to anyone who dared question the con artists' legitimacy and even hoped to double down on their poor choices, as soon as the con artist returns once this is all sorted out, of course.
It also talks about how people who are down on their luck and desperate are the easiest and most effective marks for the talented con artist. Sadly, it was published in 2015, right before the ascent of Donald Trump (though of course he was a famous con artist before his successful foray into presidential politics), and so it does not mention this greatest con artist of our times (but I have plans to find her twitter account in search of her analysis). But it does explain why people like coal miners in West Virginia, having found the person they thought was their savior, who promised them impossible things and an exit from their desperate situations, having seen no dissipation of their misery, double down and support this man who has used them and played them as fools even more so in 2020 than in 2016. It's not too different from the ways that holy rollers have been cheating the poor and exploiting their misery since time immemorial. These subjects are expected, given the book's subject matter, but some of the others--such as the guy who conned his way into the top position on a Korean warship without any expertise, and then performed miraculous feats that any talented doctor would have been proud of--are interesting and notable for the insights into the motivations and methods of not only the imposters themselves, but their pliant marks.
I've been extolling this book because it's a condensed and fascinating look into our intricate and quirky minds, why we do the nonsensical things we do and how none of us is immune, no matter how wise or shrewd we fancy ourselves to be. Highly recommended!
January 10, 2016
I really enjoyed reading the stories, background, and perspectives of these cons. I feel that by reading this, I'm better equipped to spot a scam and avoid being taken. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!
April 8, 2022
The text is a bit basic, but it is still an interesting read.
Overall the book informs us many of the basic stuff, i.e. the usual mind-traps that we always fall into, but I think this book is rather educational.
Overall the book informs us many of the basic stuff, i.e. the usual mind-traps that we always fall into, but I think this book is rather educational.
February 28, 2022
Anna Sorokina, vielleicht besser bekannt unter dem Namen Anna Delvey, hat es gerade mal wieder in die Schlagzeilen geschafft, da Netflix ihre Lebensgeschichte unter dem Titel „Inventing Anna“ verfilmt hat. Sie ist eines der bekanntesten Beispiele für sogenannte con artists, Menschen, die sich das Vertrauen (confidence) anderer erschleichen, um diese dann zu betrügen. Maria Konnikova blickt in ihrem Buch „The Confidence Game“ hinter das Phänomen und beleuchtet die psychologische Disposition, die es braucht, um so gemein mit den Mitmenschen zu spielen. Nach und nach legt sie die Auswahl der Opfer, das Setting des Betrugs, die Entwicklung der Geschichte und auch das Auffliegen dar. An unzähligen Beispielen zeigt sie, dass wirklich jeder auf sie hereinfallen kann – manche sogar mehrfach hintereinander.
Zum einen faszinieren die Methoden, mit denen die Gauner ihre Opfer anlocken und dann einwickeln und nicht mehr loslassen. So agieren so clever, dass es manchen noch nicht einmal bewusst ist, dass sie gerade hereingelegt wurden. Männer sind zwar deutlich in der Überzahl, aber auch Frauen beherrschen das Metier und sie lassen sich auch von hohen Strafen nicht abhalten; kaum in Freiheit, setzen sie zu ihrem nächsten Betrug an.
Das Buch lebt vor allem von den Geschichten, die bisweilen schier unglaublich sind und doch noch viel häufiger derart, dass einem sofort bewusst wird, dass man selbst genauso darauf hätte reinfallen können. Zahlreiche vor allem psychologische Studien haben sich sowohl mit dem Verhalten der Täter wie auch jenem der Opfer auseinandergesetzt, Konnikova untermauert mit diesen wissenschaftlich das, was hinter den con artists und seinen Taten steckt. Immer wieder legt sie so Muster offen, die es eigentlich erlauben, den Betrug zu durchschauen – jedoch, wir sind keine rationalen Wesen und unser Gehirn folgt auch gewissen Mechanismen, die es geradezu unmöglich machen, bestimmte Anzeichen zu erkennen. Oft ist man eben erst hinterher klüger und kann sich das eigene Verhalten nicht erklären. Maria Konnikova kann das hingegen, was „The Confidence Game“ zu einer ungemein interessanten Lektüre macht.
Zum einen faszinieren die Methoden, mit denen die Gauner ihre Opfer anlocken und dann einwickeln und nicht mehr loslassen. So agieren so clever, dass es manchen noch nicht einmal bewusst ist, dass sie gerade hereingelegt wurden. Männer sind zwar deutlich in der Überzahl, aber auch Frauen beherrschen das Metier und sie lassen sich auch von hohen Strafen nicht abhalten; kaum in Freiheit, setzen sie zu ihrem nächsten Betrug an.
Das Buch lebt vor allem von den Geschichten, die bisweilen schier unglaublich sind und doch noch viel häufiger derart, dass einem sofort bewusst wird, dass man selbst genauso darauf hätte reinfallen können. Zahlreiche vor allem psychologische Studien haben sich sowohl mit dem Verhalten der Täter wie auch jenem der Opfer auseinandergesetzt, Konnikova untermauert mit diesen wissenschaftlich das, was hinter den con artists und seinen Taten steckt. Immer wieder legt sie so Muster offen, die es eigentlich erlauben, den Betrug zu durchschauen – jedoch, wir sind keine rationalen Wesen und unser Gehirn folgt auch gewissen Mechanismen, die es geradezu unmöglich machen, bestimmte Anzeichen zu erkennen. Oft ist man eben erst hinterher klüger und kann sich das eigene Verhalten nicht erklären. Maria Konnikova kann das hingegen, was „The Confidence Game“ zu einer ungemein interessanten Lektüre macht.
February 22, 2021
This is really entertaining, especially the first third of it, but it did kind of start to feel directionless, maybe because it switches directions so much. There are a bunch of interesting stories interspersed with pop psych looks at what behavior and tendencies con artists are targeting, but it all ends up feeling a bit thin eventually.
Then there's this, in reference to the many impostors who cropped up over the years pretending to be Anastasia Romanov, "the Russian princess whose body was never discovered when the rest of the Romanov family perished." Record scratch!
Anastasia is originally who they thought was missing from the Romanov remains, but we've known for many years -- I think since 2007 -- that it was Maria's body that was found later and separate from the rest of the family. That doesn't negate anything about the false Anastasias, who all appeared well before anyone knew definitively who was missing, and before Maria's (and Alexei's) bodies were found, but it's not at all true to say that one of them was "never discovered." This book was published in 2015. There's no reason to make a patently false statement that could be fixed with the minorest of rewordings.
So why does this bother me so much? Because there's been an issue with fact checking in nonfiction that's been coming more and more to the fore lately, and attention paid to the fact that authors themselves are often on the hook financially for taking care of fact checking, which means it doesn't happen as it should, etc. It's a mess, basically. So when I read one little seemingly throwaway detail like this, that I know already isn't true, I'm immediately suspicious of what else might not be true and I just have no outside knowledge with which to question it.
There are plenty of sources and cited studies, but I took everything pretty grain-of-salty after reading that. Otherwise, despite being entertaining I don't think I'll retain all that much from it.
On a side note, does anyone know what recent nonfiction book referenced this one? I found this book from an author citing it in another one, and I can't remember the context that it was in now and I'm curious. (I think it might be Rutger Bregman's Humankind?) If anyone remembers it being referenced in another science/psychology text please do tell!
Then there's this, in reference to the many impostors who cropped up over the years pretending to be Anastasia Romanov, "the Russian princess whose body was never discovered when the rest of the Romanov family perished." Record scratch!
Anastasia is originally who they thought was missing from the Romanov remains, but we've known for many years -- I think since 2007 -- that it was Maria's body that was found later and separate from the rest of the family. That doesn't negate anything about the false Anastasias, who all appeared well before anyone knew definitively who was missing, and before Maria's (and Alexei's) bodies were found, but it's not at all true to say that one of them was "never discovered." This book was published in 2015. There's no reason to make a patently false statement that could be fixed with the minorest of rewordings.
So why does this bother me so much? Because there's been an issue with fact checking in nonfiction that's been coming more and more to the fore lately, and attention paid to the fact that authors themselves are often on the hook financially for taking care of fact checking, which means it doesn't happen as it should, etc. It's a mess, basically. So when I read one little seemingly throwaway detail like this, that I know already isn't true, I'm immediately suspicious of what else might not be true and I just have no outside knowledge with which to question it.
There are plenty of sources and cited studies, but I took everything pretty grain-of-salty after reading that. Otherwise, despite being entertaining I don't think I'll retain all that much from it.
On a side note, does anyone know what recent nonfiction book referenced this one? I found this book from an author citing it in another one, and I can't remember the context that it was in now and I'm curious. (I think it might be Rutger Bregman's Humankind?) If anyone remembers it being referenced in another science/psychology text please do tell!
January 25, 2016
(1 1/2). This book is a good news, bad news proposition. The chapters are mostly set up with a case study describing the kind of con or deception that it is about. Those recounts are very interesting and seem very contemporary, regardless of when they occurred. The rest of each chapter then goes into the psychology of why we (humans) react in the manner that we do and why we are duped. Like in many business and other non-fiction books (Tom Friedman for example), that part gets very repetitive and boring in a big hurry. A reasonably revealing and educational read.
July 13, 2019
I have just finished this, and was commenting to my wife that it missed engaging thoroughly with what seemed to me one of the more interesting questions raised in David Mamet’s film, House of Games: whose confidence are we talking about - the grifter’s or the mark’s? And then I read that watching House of Games was what had prompted Konnikova to write the book, and that crystallised my reactions.
On the plus side, she has clearly done a lot of research, and collected a large number of interesting examples of the long con; as well as some understanding of the psychology of confirmation bias etc.
But the quality of the research is not matched by the quality of her thinking; and that has several impacts. One is a lack of clarity: she talks about the different stages of the long con - the put-up the play, the rope, etc. But she never clearly defines them; the examples she chooses in each chapter are often just one more (interesting) con: it is often not clear precisely how they are illustrating the particular stage that the chapter is describing; and nor do the chapters contain any definition of the stage that they are about. Further, the book is over-written: it would benefit from some careful editing, to make it both more concise and clearer. And finally she over-reaches herself with her closing and rather simplistic remarks about religion: if she wanted to delve into such an area, she would have done well to read a lot more: not least Viktor Frankl, in support of her thesis, and many good theologians and spiritual writers who would have offered a counter-thesis that at least deserves consideration.
So I enjoyed reading it for the examples and a bit of the psychology (though there was little new there), but was ultimately frustrated at how long, repetitious, unclear, and poorly thought-through it was.
On the plus side, she has clearly done a lot of research, and collected a large number of interesting examples of the long con; as well as some understanding of the psychology of confirmation bias etc.
But the quality of the research is not matched by the quality of her thinking; and that has several impacts. One is a lack of clarity: she talks about the different stages of the long con - the put-up the play, the rope, etc. But she never clearly defines them; the examples she chooses in each chapter are often just one more (interesting) con: it is often not clear precisely how they are illustrating the particular stage that the chapter is describing; and nor do the chapters contain any definition of the stage that they are about. Further, the book is over-written: it would benefit from some careful editing, to make it both more concise and clearer. And finally she over-reaches herself with her closing and rather simplistic remarks about religion: if she wanted to delve into such an area, she would have done well to read a lot more: not least Viktor Frankl, in support of her thesis, and many good theologians and spiritual writers who would have offered a counter-thesis that at least deserves consideration.
So I enjoyed reading it for the examples and a bit of the psychology (though there was little new there), but was ultimately frustrated at how long, repetitious, unclear, and poorly thought-through it was.
May 22, 2019
Part of the problem here, I realize, is that I was hoping this would be a different book. I wanted a catalogue of classic confidence games, for two reasons: 1. Future writing research. 2. I wanted a final, definitive answer on whether the “biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever” from Ocean’s 11 is a real game. I did not get what I was hoping for.
But even discounting that: this is a stodgy and depressing read. The writing is fine, but the story portions are, for obvious reasons, both sad and repetitive. Person trusts someone, person gets taken in, disaster befalls person. There are only so many times I want to read that story, and this book exceeded my limit by chapter 3. And the science portions are not what I want from science writing.
Overall, I’m not sorry I read it, but I’m not glad, either. (Oh, and if you’re wondering why we fall for it every time, I’ll save you some glum reading. We fall for it because a) we’re human and b) con men are very good at exploiting human strengths and weaknesses for gain. That’s it! That’s the book.)
But even discounting that: this is a stodgy and depressing read. The writing is fine, but the story portions are, for obvious reasons, both sad and repetitive. Person trusts someone, person gets taken in, disaster befalls person. There are only so many times I want to read that story, and this book exceeded my limit by chapter 3. And the science portions are not what I want from science writing.
Overall, I’m not sorry I read it, but I’m not glad, either. (Oh, and if you’re wondering why we fall for it every time, I’ll save you some glum reading. We fall for it because a) we’re human and b) con men are very good at exploiting human strengths and weaknesses for gain. That’s it! That’s the book.)
September 1, 2023
I saw this author on American Greed and was intrigued to read her book. I was disappointed both with the content and also her narration. The content seemed to be mostly a compilation of other people’s thoughts with little insight added. The stories she integrated were intriguing, but she’d spread them out over a chapter, and intermixed with other narratives, so much so that I’d lost the storyline.
August 23, 2018
The message is interesting, but the book is too long. It has too many different examples and storylines of the same thing and becomes hard to read.
March 28, 2023
Ich muss wirklich aufhören, psychologische Underdogs zu lesen. Sie sind meistens nur eine Enttäuschung.
Also der Titel allein ist recht irreführend. Dieses Buch dreht sich im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes um CONfidence - con artists, Betrüger. Eben um alle, die bei den Spielregeln des Lebens schwindeln und vielleicht oder vielleicht auch nicht damit durchkommen.
Der Schlüssel zum Erfolg dieser Regelbrecherei liegt ebenfalls im Titel selbst, also keine große Überraschung hier.
Was mich aber irritiert, und schon an so vielen anderen Underdog-Sachbüchern irritiert hat, ist die mangelnde Auseinandersetzung mit der Wissenschaft selbst. Man liest von Person XY, dessen Namen man UNTER GARANTIE noch nie gehört hat, aber hier wird sein Name so prominent ausgelegt, als handle es sich um Elon Musk oder Julian Assange.
Geschichten und Anekdoten, bis man davon satt geworden ist, aber Wissenschaft? Psychologischer Bezug? Ja, warum haben die denn so eine Ausstrahlung, so ein Selbstbewusstsein? Was spielt sich da psychothematisch im eigenen Verhalten, im Kopf und im Zusammenspiel mit anderen ab?
Fehlanzeige.
Langsam dämmert es mir, warum es soooo viele Sachbücher zur menschlichen Psychologie gibt, alle mit den farbenfrohsten und vielversprechendsten Titeln, und warum es aber immer nur ein oder zwei tatsächlich auf irgendeine Bestsellerliste schaffen.
Gelernt habe ich von dem Buch nichts. Also auch hier keinen Mehrwert gefunden, nicht mal einen Satz. Schade.
Also der Titel allein ist recht irreführend. Dieses Buch dreht sich im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes um CONfidence - con artists, Betrüger. Eben um alle, die bei den Spielregeln des Lebens schwindeln und vielleicht oder vielleicht auch nicht damit durchkommen.
Der Schlüssel zum Erfolg dieser Regelbrecherei liegt ebenfalls im Titel selbst, also keine große Überraschung hier.
Was mich aber irritiert, und schon an so vielen anderen Underdog-Sachbüchern irritiert hat, ist die mangelnde Auseinandersetzung mit der Wissenschaft selbst. Man liest von Person XY, dessen Namen man UNTER GARANTIE noch nie gehört hat, aber hier wird sein Name so prominent ausgelegt, als handle es sich um Elon Musk oder Julian Assange.
Geschichten und Anekdoten, bis man davon satt geworden ist, aber Wissenschaft? Psychologischer Bezug? Ja, warum haben die denn so eine Ausstrahlung, so ein Selbstbewusstsein? Was spielt sich da psychothematisch im eigenen Verhalten, im Kopf und im Zusammenspiel mit anderen ab?
Fehlanzeige.
Langsam dämmert es mir, warum es soooo viele Sachbücher zur menschlichen Psychologie gibt, alle mit den farbenfrohsten und vielversprechendsten Titeln, und warum es aber immer nur ein oder zwei tatsächlich auf irgendeine Bestsellerliste schaffen.
Gelernt habe ich von dem Buch nichts. Also auch hier keinen Mehrwert gefunden, nicht mal einen Satz. Schade.
December 18, 2015
Recently, my father, his cousin and my spouse all fell (or nearly fell) for fraudulent scams. Two of them got the phone calls about the grandchild being in Mexico and needing cash. My spouse got the call about his computer needing to be repaired to the tune of $200. So, I've been thinking a lot about this issue lately: How are we so easily scammed?
Maria Konnikova's book is dense with psychological facts and theories surrounding this question. She opens her book with a case study concerning a surgeon for the Navy in the 1950s. Turns out the man was no surgeon at all -- and yet he performed operations! He was a serial scammer who assumed identities in many professions, including the clergy. From there, she opens up her inquiries as to how scammers become what they become, and how we, the marks, are taken in. The bottom line, for her, is that humanity has a deep need to believe, and once a con man (or woman) gives us something to believe in, something that we think will make our lives meaningful, we're sunk. "Ultimately, what a confidence artist sells is hope," she writes. "Hope that you'll be happier, healthier, richer, loved, accepted, better looking, younger, smarter, a deeper, more fulfilled human being."
The case studies in the book follow a similar pattern: a skilled person carefully chooses and primes his or her target and then moves in for the kill. For the most part, the scammers work over a period of time, roping people in gradually. I could easily relate to these people: I was once scammed by a co-worker who rear-ended my car and promised to pay out of pocket. He was a charming person who over time had built friendships within the company. But he didn't repay and when I finally insisted, he gave me a check that bounced. I pursued him in small claims court, won the judgment but still couldn't collect. I didn't know at the time that I could have just taken the bad check to the police and pursued him criminally.
The case studies are definitely the highlight of the book. I'd heard of several high profile cases, such as the Ponzi scheme run by William Franklin Miller in the late 1880s and the ruse of Samantha Azzopardi, who passed herself off as an abused runaway in Australia under various names in the 2010s. The case studies are broken up by long discussions of psychological concepts related to the cases, a construction that was confusing at times. Many times, I had to backtrack to remind myself of the backstory after a case study was reintroduced and resolved.
What I didn't really find in the book is a discussion of why a person would fall for a scam in the space of a brief phone call with someone they don't know. I don't think these scammers try to establish much of a rapport; they just rely on a high enough response rate of people who don't hang up to make the scam worthwhile. For example, in all the cases of my relatives, I think technology was their downfall. Technology is a mystery to many people, and we place our trust in people who seem to know what they're doing. In the grandchild scam, I think the elderly relatives couldn't imagine how a grandchild's name could be known if it weren't the grandchild him or herself. Those of us online, though, can see how freely information is shared. In the computer scam, the bogus screen that popped up on the computer looked fairly legitimate. It was our computer guy who alerted us to the scam. But even after we were taken, I wasn't willing to concede defeat! I called the number back and yelled and screamed until they refunded our money. I made it clear I would keep calling until the credit card charge was removed and that I would waste a whole lot of their time doing so.
I guess the takeaway message of the book for me is that scammers prey on the vulnerable and so, it's best not to place yourself in a position of vulnerability in the first place. Sounds good, but sometimes vulnerability is thrust upon you by age, infirmity, dire circumstances, emotional distress, financial hardship, etc. I worry about that as I age. That's why I'll keep Ms. Konnikova's book at the ready on my bookshelf!
Maria Konnikova's book is dense with psychological facts and theories surrounding this question. She opens her book with a case study concerning a surgeon for the Navy in the 1950s. Turns out the man was no surgeon at all -- and yet he performed operations! He was a serial scammer who assumed identities in many professions, including the clergy. From there, she opens up her inquiries as to how scammers become what they become, and how we, the marks, are taken in. The bottom line, for her, is that humanity has a deep need to believe, and once a con man (or woman) gives us something to believe in, something that we think will make our lives meaningful, we're sunk. "Ultimately, what a confidence artist sells is hope," she writes. "Hope that you'll be happier, healthier, richer, loved, accepted, better looking, younger, smarter, a deeper, more fulfilled human being."
The case studies in the book follow a similar pattern: a skilled person carefully chooses and primes his or her target and then moves in for the kill. For the most part, the scammers work over a period of time, roping people in gradually. I could easily relate to these people: I was once scammed by a co-worker who rear-ended my car and promised to pay out of pocket. He was a charming person who over time had built friendships within the company. But he didn't repay and when I finally insisted, he gave me a check that bounced. I pursued him in small claims court, won the judgment but still couldn't collect. I didn't know at the time that I could have just taken the bad check to the police and pursued him criminally.
The case studies are definitely the highlight of the book. I'd heard of several high profile cases, such as the Ponzi scheme run by William Franklin Miller in the late 1880s and the ruse of Samantha Azzopardi, who passed herself off as an abused runaway in Australia under various names in the 2010s. The case studies are broken up by long discussions of psychological concepts related to the cases, a construction that was confusing at times. Many times, I had to backtrack to remind myself of the backstory after a case study was reintroduced and resolved.
What I didn't really find in the book is a discussion of why a person would fall for a scam in the space of a brief phone call with someone they don't know. I don't think these scammers try to establish much of a rapport; they just rely on a high enough response rate of people who don't hang up to make the scam worthwhile. For example, in all the cases of my relatives, I think technology was their downfall. Technology is a mystery to many people, and we place our trust in people who seem to know what they're doing. In the grandchild scam, I think the elderly relatives couldn't imagine how a grandchild's name could be known if it weren't the grandchild him or herself. Those of us online, though, can see how freely information is shared. In the computer scam, the bogus screen that popped up on the computer looked fairly legitimate. It was our computer guy who alerted us to the scam. But even after we were taken, I wasn't willing to concede defeat! I called the number back and yelled and screamed until they refunded our money. I made it clear I would keep calling until the credit card charge was removed and that I would waste a whole lot of their time doing so.
I guess the takeaway message of the book for me is that scammers prey on the vulnerable and so, it's best not to place yourself in a position of vulnerability in the first place. Sounds good, but sometimes vulnerability is thrust upon you by age, infirmity, dire circumstances, emotional distress, financial hardship, etc. I worry about that as I age. That's why I'll keep Ms. Konnikova's book at the ready on my bookshelf!
June 12, 2016
This was a fascinating book--not so much about specific types of cons, though some are mentioned in detail--focusing on the psychology of con artists and their victims. Of particular note, it looks at some of the newest psychological research to examine why people fall prey to these crimes, and why they work so well. I'm sure the subtitle is going to jar some potential readers, since we all have our pet theories as to who 'deserves' to be conned and why we ourselves won't become victims. But as Konnikova points out, researchers are discovering that different types of confidence tricks work with different groups of people. Just because you wouldn't dream of buying into a Madoff-style pyramid scheme in the hopes of too-good-to-be-true investment returns doesn't mean some other scam won't appeal to you. (The times I've been taken fortunately weren't huge financial disasters, but they were good learning experiences. Konnikova's book is a reminder that being human makes us uniquely vulnerable even as it allows us to work with others. A greater awareness of the ways some nefarious individuals will try to use our better nature against us offers at least some protection.)
Also, I really need to write a blog post about the similarity between writing fiction and running a con--though the writer hopes that readers come away from a story feeling anything but cheated, I realized as I was reading that the deep revulsion and frustration I feel for some books is probably a result of a sense that the author tricked me somehow, and not in a good way.
Also, I really need to write a blog post about the similarity between writing fiction and running a con--though the writer hopes that readers come away from a story feeling anything but cheated, I realized as I was reading that the deep revulsion and frustration I feel for some books is probably a result of a sense that the author tricked me somehow, and not in a good way.
June 4, 2016
How this 300+ page book got published is a great mystery (or con) when a 5000 word article would suffice.
One would imagine an ethical publisher would regret and hang their head in shame at this gratuitous second hasty foray into book manuscript (or sorry excuse at a journalistic and pop-sci (pop-sci?) attempt of a book about scams, frauds and cons).
Given the author's PhD this book should not have lazily attempted to he like New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking or The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Even those standard setting books had more diagrams and appeared academic by comparison.
One would imagine an ethical publisher would regret and hang their head in shame at this gratuitous second hasty foray into book manuscript (or sorry excuse at a journalistic and pop-sci (pop-sci?) attempt of a book about scams, frauds and cons).
Given the author's PhD this book should not have lazily attempted to he like New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking or The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Even those standard setting books had more diagrams and appeared academic by comparison.
September 25, 2020
I got into this book for a fairly sad reason. A dear friend recently passed away. He had been suffering from heart and pulmonary issues as well as diabetes. Retired, well educated professional living alone. The attorney handling estate issues told me that my friend had been scammed. From the local bank account representing his emergency reserves he had sent $25k to a Western Union address, another $25k in gift cards. The autopsy showed he died from an overdose of his medications. (Note the police declined to follow-up other than checking the Western Union address and determining no information was available regarding who picked up the funds.)
Why, I wondered would someone this intelligent fall for this type of scam? This question led me to Maria's book which she answers quite well. Seems no one, no matter how educated, intelligent or careful is immune to the well executed con. She delves into the structure of the con, the stages involved, why they work or don't and why those scammed often continue to believe the con was legitimate.
Also includes some of the more interesting historical scams such as Ponzi, Madoff, etc. The book was well written enough that I have moved off to her examination of the world of professional poker. If this is an area of interest for you, hard to beat this one.
Why, I wondered would someone this intelligent fall for this type of scam? This question led me to Maria's book which she answers quite well. Seems no one, no matter how educated, intelligent or careful is immune to the well executed con. She delves into the structure of the con, the stages involved, why they work or don't and why those scammed often continue to believe the con was legitimate.
Also includes some of the more interesting historical scams such as Ponzi, Madoff, etc. The book was well written enough that I have moved off to her examination of the world of professional poker. If this is an area of interest for you, hard to beat this one.
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