Maria Konnikova

A compelling investigation into the minds, motives, and methods of con artistsand the people who fall for their cons over and over again.

Why We Fall for It... Every Time

The Confidence Game

Magdalene Lim

"Nobody sets out to be conned: we set out to become, in some way, better than we were before."

Scams will always exist and perhaps the best (though not foolproof) way to not get trapped into one is to read about them so you can nip them at the bud. E.g. if you've read about Nigerian guys tying friendship bracelets on you in Paris, you would be able to quickly walk away from anyone coming towards you, with the intent of tying something on your wrist.

I liked the stories and the explanations of human psychology using social psych terms. However, like others have commented, I think this book could have been shorter.

Jeni Enjaian

While I normally enjoy stories like these, this book disappointed. Konnikova set it up as an analysis as to why we fall for cons so much. Each chapter purported to either describe a different type of con or a different reason why people fall for cons. However, so many of the example stories that she devoted so much ink towards simply told the stories of successful cons. After a few chapters it became repetitive and something that I just skimmed to get to the end and on to the next book.

Chelsea White

Super interesting, mildly terrifying. Terrifying because I could totally see myself falling for one of the cons, but hopefully I’ll be a bit better prepared now that I know more about the logic/tricks behind a con.

Adam

Some of my favorite stories center around con-men -- people who find a way to take advantage of others. In the movies this is generally robbing from the rich, but back here in reality this is people praying on the weak. This book is half history lesson of scams, and half analysis of them. The constraints and structure of a con is explored and deconstructed many times over, evaluating cons of different types.

The con artist: from Bernie Madoff to Clark Rockefeller to Lance Armstrong. How do they get away with it? And what keeps us falling for them, over and over again? In The Confidence Game, Maria Konnikova investigates the psychological principles that underlie each stage of the swindle, from the put-up all the way to the fix, and how we can train ourselves to spot a story that isn't all it seems.

The Confidence Game Why We Fall for It... Every Time

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