Episode 91: The Confidence Game

"it is a likely ruse" [ENGR]

February is a shorter month, so the latest episode of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere comes to you a day earlier.

We're joined by Maria Konnikova, whom you may remember as the author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. She first appeared on I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Episode 54 to discuss that very book. Maria is a contributing writer for The New Yorker, where she writes a regular column with a focus on psychology and culture, and her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Scientific American MIND, and Smithsonian, among numerous other publications.

Maria's latest book is The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It... Every Time. While cheats and swindlers may be a dime a dozen, true con men are elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. How do they do it? Why are they successful? And what keeps us falling for it? The Confidence Game not only asks why we believe con artists; it also examines the very act of believing and how our sense of truth can be manipulated by those around us, leaving us to fall for it - over and over again.

We explore the dark triad — psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism — and probe Maria's research process as she shares with us how a con works and how con artists manage to get away with what they do. From religions and cults to marketers and storytellers, it comes down to intent, and they all prey on the very trusting nature of people.

Our conversation with Maria delved into these issues, as well as cons in the Sherlock Holmes stories, and the ultimate question: was Sherlock Holmes a con man?

Be sure to stay tuned for another gem of an Easter egg.

Our special thanks go out to Mary Miller and Christian Mongaard for their Patreon support!

Sponsors

This episode includes our two longtime sponsors and a special sponsor with us for the first half of this year:The Wessex Press, featuring A Curious Collection of Dates, and The Baker Street Journal, where you should get your annual subscription in now to secure all four issues - now accepting 2016 subscriptions. Also, Paula Berinstein's Amanda Lester, Detective series for young adults and the John H. Watson Society Manuscript Series.

Would you care to become a sponsor? You can find more information here.

Links:

• The New Yorker
• "Mr. Popeil" - Weird Al Yankovic
• The Confidence Game by Maria Konnikova
• House of Games, directed by David Mamet
• The Big Con by David Moore
• The I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Patreon page

Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard and Scoop.it sites at ihose.co/flipsherlock and ihose.co/scoopsherlock, as well as on the The Sherlock Holmes Community on Google+ (now over 3,400 members), as well as through our accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

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