The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall for it Every Time

The con artist: from Bernie Madoff to Clark Rockefeller to Lance Armstrong – all elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. But 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. Exploring the psychological profile of both the con artist and his mark, we learn how grifters can be so persuasive, and how we can train ourselves to discern the signs of a story that isn’t quite what it seems. Telling the unbelievable stories of the most seductive imposters in history, The Confidence Game leads us into the world of the con to examine just how easily our sense of truth can be manipulated by those around us.