Easy Prey23 Aug 2023

Why We Fall for Scams with Chris Chabris and Dan Simons

Scammers, like magicians, use distractions and illusions to keep you from realizing what is really going on. They may choose to have you focus on something that is urgent hoping that you'll make mistakes that you normally wouldn't.

Today's guests are Chris Chabris and Dan Simons. Dr. Chabris is a Cognitive Scientist who has taught at Union College in Harvard University and is a fellow of The Association for Psychological Science. His research focuses on decision-making, attention, intelligence, and behavior genetics. Chris received his PhD in Psychology from Harvard University.

Dr. Daniel Simons is a professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, where he has the Visual Cognitive Laboratory. Dan received his PhD from Cornell University. His research explores the limits of awareness and memory, the reasons why we often are unaware of those limits, and the implications of such limits on our personal and professional lives.

Show Notes:

[1:18] - Dan and Chris share their background and what their current roles are in their industry.
[3:27] - Why did Dan and Chris decide to write a book together?
[6:12] - Stories of victims are engaging and interesting, but these stories don't focus on why we are fooled.
[8:53] - Chris and Dan share the story of a time they were almost scammed.
[13:01] - Fictional stories in movies get some things right about what con artists exploit, but real scenarios are not always so precise.
[14:52] - We have the ability to focus on a select amount of the information in front of us.
[16:39] - There are a lot of different techniques that scammers employ to put you under time pressure.
[19:59] - Confirmation bias is the idea that you try to find evidence of what you believe.
[21:04] - There are a lot of theories about why we are good at some things and not as good at others.
[22:15] - It is logical to trust someone you know, but social media has created the opportunity to trust misinformation.
[24:38] - Commitments are assumptions that we make and hold steadfastly to.
[26:41] - It is easy to trust someone when you've committed to your perception of them.
[28:33] - Ask yourself if there is anything you believe that could be proven wrong if you were given new information.
[31:01] - External validation is a great source for seeing things you might have missed.
[32:48] - There are scams in literally everything, even chess.
[38:02] - Are scams increasing or is it awareness of scams that is increasing?
[40:26] - All scams employ the same principles. They are always going to rely on the same tricks and tap into the same fears.
[42:37] - Dan's hope is that people will question the information they get and become less accepting.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

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