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The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall for It Every Time by Maria Konnikova
alikatmckin's review against another edition
Loan was coming due at the library and I didn't find myself wanting to read more. It just didn't capture my interest as it had at first.
hannah_hethmon's review
3.0
The stories in each chapter are compelling, but just as they hook you in, you find yourself left hanging for pages and pages of one psychology study after another. The organization of the book makes it a bit hard to follow all the studies. I would have liked less paragraph long summaries of various studies and more analysis and connection to the stories. Worth reading for the stories and to challenge how you think about these things, but a bit of a slog.
brontherun's review against another edition
4.0
Cons work and persist because they play on the nuances of human psychology. The have become almost ubiquitous in the world of the internet, to the point where we have come to expect that the dating site guy is catfishing, the email from the law suit settlement is bogus, and the resume we are reviewing is probably as much fiction as fact.
And yet even with that awareness, the cons and the confidence men and women flourish. Konnikova investigates out why cons persist. "Because the flags, they are there. They are waving. And people aren't blind, right? Except they absolutely are. And the more they have invested, the blinder they become." The Confidence Game is predicated on our desire to believe the best for ourselves. Regardless of the facts. Regardless of the evidence. We cross moral lines we said we wouldn’t. We agree to do things for people we don’t really know in order to preserve some misguided sense of honor, charity, or comradery
As humans, our brains trick us and fool us. And there are countless people who are adroit at finding marks for a particular narrative, roping us in, and leaving us high and dry while they abscond with something that was precious to us – our money, our hearts, or even our freedom. Yes, in extreme cases sometimes the dupe ends up criminally caught and prosecuted while the confidence man has escaped the reach of the law and exited the scene early.
Konnikova looks at how our hardwired susceptibility to cons may not be maladaptive. "As information from our environment comes in, we hone in on the positive and tend to isolate and filter out the negative. That selective perception makes us more empathetic, happier, better able to care for others, more productive, and more creative. When we receive negative feedback, we can usually deal with it, because, we rationalize, it's not really our fault. We are good at what we do. It's just that, this time, things went a bit awry.” And so we continue to fall in love with people we know nothing about, trust people with money who are criminally not trustworthy, and blithely deny realities in our work and personal lives. But if you read this book, and try to turn the introspection it generates inward, you may arm yourself a little bit further against the pitfalls of the con. You’ll still probably fall, but maybe not as hard, and maybe you won’t ever even know that you fell – the sign of the really great confidence game.
And yet even with that awareness, the cons and the confidence men and women flourish. Konnikova investigates out why cons persist. "Because the flags, they are there. They are waving. And people aren't blind, right? Except they absolutely are. And the more they have invested, the blinder they become." The Confidence Game is predicated on our desire to believe the best for ourselves. Regardless of the facts. Regardless of the evidence. We cross moral lines we said we wouldn’t. We agree to do things for people we don’t really know in order to preserve some misguided sense of honor, charity, or comradery
As humans, our brains trick us and fool us. And there are countless people who are adroit at finding marks for a particular narrative, roping us in, and leaving us high and dry while they abscond with something that was precious to us – our money, our hearts, or even our freedom. Yes, in extreme cases sometimes the dupe ends up criminally caught and prosecuted while the confidence man has escaped the reach of the law and exited the scene early.
Konnikova looks at how our hardwired susceptibility to cons may not be maladaptive. "As information from our environment comes in, we hone in on the positive and tend to isolate and filter out the negative. That selective perception makes us more empathetic, happier, better able to care for others, more productive, and more creative. When we receive negative feedback, we can usually deal with it, because, we rationalize, it's not really our fault. We are good at what we do. It's just that, this time, things went a bit awry.” And so we continue to fall in love with people we know nothing about, trust people with money who are criminally not trustworthy, and blithely deny realities in our work and personal lives. But if you read this book, and try to turn the introspection it generates inward, you may arm yourself a little bit further against the pitfalls of the con. You’ll still probably fall, but maybe not as hard, and maybe you won’t ever even know that you fell – the sign of the really great confidence game.
good_quiet_kitty's review against another edition
4.0
Through stories of true scams and recountings of behavioral studies, Konnikova walks the reader through the phases of a con and why everyone is susceptible to them. By the end you'll feel better-equipped to avoid falling into these pitfalls -- and maybe better-equipped to manipulate others to your own ends.
anniew415's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting, compelling story of cons and con artists.
simlish's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. Pretty repetitive but interesting and well supported and researched.
mattgoldberg's review against another edition
1.0
Tapping out after 70 pages. Any insights Konnikova might have are buried in a flood of pop psychology and endless repetition based upon broad concepts. For example, Konnikova argues that “mere exposure” and repetition leads to positive familiarity. But if that were true, no ad campaign could possibly fail. If I say to you, “1-877-Karz-4-Kidz” does it make you happy or does it make you want to firebomb my house?
When you couple the weak writing with Konnikova being a protégé of the notorious Steven Pinkner and the link she puts in her notes section not leading to any actual notes (perhaps it did at the time of publication, but now it’s just praise for the book), I feel like to keep pushing ahead would be a waste of time. I have other books to read.
When you couple the weak writing with Konnikova being a protégé of the notorious Steven Pinkner and the link she puts in her notes section not leading to any actual notes (perhaps it did at the time of publication, but now it’s just praise for the book), I feel like to keep pushing ahead would be a waste of time. I have other books to read.
icallaci's review against another edition
3.0
I was hoping this book would describe specific methods that con artists use to deceive people. What does a con artist look for? How do they know what to say? Do they research their victims? This book doesn't really address those questions, except tangentially. Most of the cons described in the first third of this book are outrageous and obvious, like fortune tellers, card cheats, spiritualists, etc. Victims who fall for these cons are described as "intelligent" and "good judges of people," but anyone who gives a fortune teller $27,000 on a first or second visit is an idiot. I already know how to spot these kinds of fraudsters. What I hoped to learn from this book is how to identify the tactics of salespeople, fundraisers, politicians, casual acquaintances, friends, coworkers, and relatives (who "just need a little money until the end of the month because of an unforeseen emergency"). I want to know how these supposedly legitimate people operate, how they decide what sob story to use this time, what methods work best on what kinds of people, and how to spot a con in the making. Instead, I got lots of entertaining anecdotes and very little specific information. I learned, for example, that doing a small favor for someone sets me up to perform a larger favor down the road; that saying "no" to a request for a large favor sets me up to perform a smaller favor to assuage my guilty conscience; and that a compelling story is prelude to a scam. But how do I verify someone's story without hiring a private detective? What questions should I ask before going any further? Can I turn the tables on a scammer to expose him or her? I learned some basic red flags, but the book fell short in giving me the tools to protect myself.