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A review by specialk136
The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time by Maria Konnikova
2.0
More like 2.5 stars. I grabbed The Confidence Game at random off the shelf at the library because I like reading about psychology (and if I'm being honest...I liked the cover). The book is packed with a lot of really interesting stories about people conning other people; the basic premise being that con artists take advantage of our innate desire to trust others, especially when we're in down in the dumps, lonely, or otherwise vulnerable.
I really felt like the book could've done more with less. Each chapter contains several stories exemplifying one part of the con (the put-up, the play, the tale, etc.). There are so many characters and unique cons I had a hard time getting invested in them - especially since the author likes to start a chapter with a particularly meaty story, drop it to go on to another, then pick up the original story. Each time this happened I had a hard time mentally figuring out which story we were supposed to be going back to. Fewer stories, told more in-depth, would've helped me get more emotionally invested.
Second quibble: the subtitle "Why we fall for it...every time" puts the focus on the victim and why we're so susceptible to the con. We want to trust others, we may believe nothing like that could happen to us, or we're distracted, lonely, or otherwise easy marks. I didn't need to read a book to know that. Wouldn't it be much more interesting to focus on the people conning us? What, if anything, makes them different from other members of society? There are several interesting stories about con artists taking on new identities, seemingly for kicks, not for financial gain. One was a nanny, one was a doctor, another a professor - and despite not having any training, did well enough in their new professions that everyone was shocked when their backstories emerged. What makes these people tick? That, I think, is the book I would've liked to have read.
I really felt like the book could've done more with less. Each chapter contains several stories exemplifying one part of the con (the put-up, the play, the tale, etc.). There are so many characters and unique cons I had a hard time getting invested in them - especially since the author likes to start a chapter with a particularly meaty story, drop it to go on to another, then pick up the original story. Each time this happened I had a hard time mentally figuring out which story we were supposed to be going back to. Fewer stories, told more in-depth, would've helped me get more emotionally invested.
Second quibble: the subtitle "Why we fall for it...every time" puts the focus on the victim and why we're so susceptible to the con. We want to trust others, we may believe nothing like that could happen to us, or we're distracted, lonely, or otherwise easy marks. I didn't need to read a book to know that. Wouldn't it be much more interesting to focus on the people conning us? What, if anything, makes them different from other members of society? There are several interesting stories about con artists taking on new identities, seemingly for kicks, not for financial gain. One was a nanny, one was a doctor, another a professor - and despite not having any training, did well enough in their new professions that everyone was shocked when their backstories emerged. What makes these people tick? That, I think, is the book I would've liked to have read.