Uncovering Scams and Deceptions with Christopher Chabris

Christopher Chabris is a cognitive scientist who has taught at Union University and Harvard University. His research focuses on decision-making, attention, intelligence and behavior genetics. Christopher received his Ph.D. in Psychology and A.B. in computer science from Harvard University. He joined us today to talk about the book he co-authored, Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do About It.

Join us as we dissect the complexities of belief, deception, and human psychology.

 [10.08] Willing suspension of disbelief – Christopher defines willing suspension of disbelief and how the position of belief can get us into trouble. 

[14.12] The illusory truth – We dive into how we mistakenly attribute qualities such as credibility, truth, and trustworthiness to things like familiarity and recognition.

[24.12] Using AI – Artificial intelligence and its current usage. 

[32.27] Survivorship bias – Christopher explains what survivorship bias is with some examples.

[38.18] Opinions - Opinions come a lot easier than justifications. We talk about the famous saying, ‘The work required to have an opinion.’

[48.10] Predictions – We dive into predictions, outcomes, and the effect predictions have on people.

[51.27] Consistency – Consistency and what happens when it’s impossible.

[01.07.25] Dealing with scams – Christopher shares how to identify if you are working with a scam and how to stay safe from them.

Resources

Connect with Christopher

LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/christopherchabris/ 

Twitter - twitter.com/cfchabris 

Website - chabris.com/

Book by Christopher Chabris 

Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do about It

Book by Duncan J. Watts

Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us

Book by Michael Shermer

Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational