Book SummaryThe Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Confidence Game

Psychologist Maria Konnikova claims that con artists have existed for as long as human communities have. Con artists are people with an uncanny ability to gain someone’s trust, swindle them, and disappear before the victim even grasps what’s happened—a ruse known as a confidence game, or “con.”

In The Confidence Game, published in 2016, Konnikova uses social psychology to reveal the inner workings of cons: What makes a good con artist, and what makes a person an easy target, or “mark”? Through her analysis of common human biases, Konnikova demonstrates that a con artist doesn’t just rely on their own wiles—**they rely on our instinctive confidence in the stories we tell _ourselves....

The Confidence Game Summary Characteristics of a Con Artist

Konnikova writes that the terms “confidence game” and “confidence man” likely date back to 1849 in the description of a legal case for a man named William Thompson. Thomspon would approach people in public in New York City, asking “Have you confidence in me to trust me with your watch until tomorrow?” (Shortform note: Konnikova doesn’t explain the specifics of this con, but it’s famous partly for its simplicity. Thompson would dress elegantly, strike up a conversation with a wealthy-looking person, and then ask to borrow their watch. The victim, assuming Thompson was an acquaintance they’d forgotten about, would hand it over and never see Thompson again.)

The case demonstrates that Thompson’s success depended partly on the victims’ confidence in a certain kind of person (in this case, affluent people) and partly on Thompson’s ability to prey on the right person and manipulate them. (Shortform note: One reason that perceived affluence often plays a role in cons may be because of the [halo...

The Confidence Game Summary The Elements of a Confidence Game and Why They Work

Konnikova claims that the con has 10 key elements (the put-up, the play, the rope, the tale, the convincer, the breakdown, the send, the touch, the blow-off, and the fix). We’ve consolidated these elements into five general steps: identifying a vulnerable person (the mark) and figuring out their desire, gaining the mark’s trust, persuading the mark to do something, seeing how far they can push the mark, and finally, escaping and ensuring that the mark won’t speak out.

Overall, Konnikova asserts that throughout the con, the con artist takes advantage of natural human instincts—ones that generally evolved to help us in some way. They also prey on our innate desire to believe in ourselves and that good things can happen to us because we deserve it. In the rest of this section, we’ll explain how each of these tactics unfolds and the human biases that make us play into the con artist’s hands.

(Shortform note: Although Konnikova says that con artists prey on human nature and thus, everyone is susceptible to cons, some research identifies [types of people who are specifically vulnerable to financial investment...

Shortform Exercise: Reflect on the Con Artist’s Traits

According to Konnikova, there are three personality traits (the dark triad of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) that make people more likely to become a con artist. In addition, there are two environmental factors that encourage con artist behavior: opportunity (such as being in a place where this is normal) and rationale or justification, such as external pressure from an authority figure. In this exercise, we’ll explore your experience with these factors.

Even if the dark triad traits don’t manifest in your personality in an extreme way, what are some aspects of these traits that you observe in yourself or that you’re most likely to exhibit when you’re at your worst? For example, you might tend toward being overly confident, struggle to empathize with others, or seek self-advancement at other people’s expense.

Shortform Exercise: Resist the Con Artist’s Tactics

Konnikova explains that con games rely on many manipulation strategies that target people’s natural instincts and biases. These include things like con artists gaining people’s trust by appealing to similarity, familiarity, and appeals to emotion, persuasion techniques, the superiority bias, and people’s instinct to maintain a good reputation and self-image. In this exercise, reflect on how these strategies have impacted you in the past and how you might resist them in the future.

Think of an instance when you were conned or deceived by someone in the past. Explain what manipulation tactics might have contributed to your trust in the other person.