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viveknshah's review against another edition
2.0
Hooter: An academic look at what traits are common to people who con.
If you ever watched the British TV series "Hustle" and wanted an academic look at that premise, you may like this book. I personally found it too academic for my interest as it reiterated the fact that "yes! we fall for the people who seem the most trustworthy and confident."
Maria deepdives into each scenario / process of conning as it involves building trust and then manipulating you in believing that you are doing everything of your accord and never once does the conner force you to take a decision but leaves you hanging and self doubting till you give in. She breaks it down chapter by chapter but gets confusing after a while with the examples being called back and not too much background on each. As a layman reader, this becomes a challenge to stay connected and hence felt very academic for me as a psychology treatise.
If you ever watched the British TV series "Hustle" and wanted an academic look at that premise, you may like this book. I personally found it too academic for my interest as it reiterated the fact that "yes! we fall for the people who seem the most trustworthy and confident."
Maria deepdives into each scenario / process of conning as it involves building trust and then manipulating you in believing that you are doing everything of your accord and never once does the conner force you to take a decision but leaves you hanging and self doubting till you give in. She breaks it down chapter by chapter but gets confusing after a while with the examples being called back and not too much background on each. As a layman reader, this becomes a challenge to stay connected and hence felt very academic for me as a psychology treatise.
oliviameads's review against another edition
2.0
I'm sure it's a good book, but I listened to the audio version and the narrator was SO boring, I couldn't keep going and had to return the book :(.
vahalasly's review against another edition
3.0
A very solid read, although I couldn't help but feel like it was lacking something. Maybe I would have liked a more in-depth retelling of some of the scams, or a more "personal" touch to each of the stories. Either way a really interesting book, 3.5
tesscameron's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
2.0
Very long read for a not a lot of actual content. Every chapter felt like a repeat of the last. There were some interesting stories about cons and many mentions of psychological research that was fun to read but each bit was so short, not enough for a deep dive and too repetitive to keep it interesting
sophiaellieb's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
I read this after watching 'The Tinder Swindler' and listening to the 'Sweet Bobby' podcast as I wanted to learn more about how and why con-people have such success, and that I did! However, while there were some really insightful parts to the book, specifically the chapters 'The Put Up' and 'The Play', I agree with other reviewers that it need not have been so long. It kind of lost its way towards the end and the structure went a bit awry. I appreciated the clear writing style, though, as I can't imagine it was the easiest task knowing when to best draw on certain examples.
I read this after watching 'The Tinder Swindler' and listening to the 'Sweet Bobby' podcast as I wanted to learn more about how and why con-people have such success, and that I did! However, while there were some really insightful parts to the book, specifically the chapters 'The Put Up' and 'The Play', I agree with other reviewers that it need not have been so long. It kind of lost its way towards the end and the structure went a bit awry. I appreciated the clear writing style, though, as I can't imagine it was the easiest task knowing when to best draw on certain examples.
jaclynday's review against another edition
3.0
There is a lot of nonfiction in this vein that could ultimately be a longform article or blog post and still convey key points. Identifying common threads among con artists and the scams they run is an encouraging topic. 352 pages of it? Too long. This topic calls for a brisk, tight edit. To make matters worse, it read like someone composing Wikipedia summaries instead of writing from inherent knowledge of the topic.
eayelizabeth's review against another edition
3.0
(3.5) An interesting dive into the psychology of how con artists set us up and why we fall for their cons.
cah242's review
4.0
Very interesting stories about confidence scams. I agree with some other reviewers that the number of obviously apocryphal stories, as well as the fact that general conclusions are drawn from really specific stories, is problematic. And overall I think the book could have been shorter, or better organized, or both. But overall it was interesting and entertaining, and it made me think critically about my own susceptibilities.