Maria Konnikova (@mkonnikova) shows us how we can defend ourselves against would-be con artists and use the same principles for more benign purposes in her book The Confidence Game. [Note: This is a previously broadcast episode from the vault that we felt deserved a fresh pass through your earholes!]
What We Discuss with Maria Konnikova:
As it turns out, you can fool an honest man. But cynics — by their own overconfidence in being savvy and “scamproof” — are just as susceptible to deception.
Technology and the abundance of information most of us freely surrender to the Internet makes the con artist’s job easier than ever before.
What type of person becomes a con artist?
How can we avoid getting scammed?
How belief works, why we over-believe in some things (even when we have no evidence for them), and how this plays into our susceptibility to deception.