Customer Reviews

Annals of Gullibility: Why We Get Duped and How to Avoid It

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought and read this book thinking I would learn about a theory to explain gullibility. Instead I got a series of descriptions of people being gullible. I can think of the many times that I've been gullible. I don't need to learn that the phenomenon exists. The solutions proposed were not exciting. I did learn to be more careful when I order books.
I did not learn why I get duped and I should have avoided buying and reading this book.

This other Greenspan has given us a highly accessible and useful primer on how a avoid--or at least protect against, both fooling oneself and being overly prone to the latest scam in our driven market free-for-all. Greenspan tells his narrative with considerable eloquence and a disarming tone of personal experience informed by a clear and convincing scholarship: an erudite wit and gentle guide if ever there was one. His book is quickly accessible to all but the most gullible--and serves as a relief to those of us gulled (and who among us lacks that trial?)--and as a tonic to prepare against those new temptations we will surely face. Finally, we have an adviser we can trust--a true green span to better behavior. I can only say: read it soon--and reread it often!

Most of the book is more entertaining (great dupes throughout history) than educational, but in the last chapter Greenspan outlines several rules to limit your vulnerability. Most of this review comes from Nate Collier.

Major Points

- Don't rush a big decision. Sleep on it. Life is too important not to have the benefit of reflection on the major choices of your life.

- Avoid high-pressure sales situations: The more you are pressured, the more you should be skeptical. Yes, you might, maybe, possibly, lose out on a good deal by taking your time. But it is much more likely you will avoid being duped.

- Admit your limitations. As you have your strengths, you also have your areas of vulnerability. Know them, accept them. No one can be an expert in everything. Just because you are knowledgeable in a certain area doesn't mean that you should not seek additional help and advice in that area. Remember, the saying "the lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client," has broad application.

- Learn how to say no and buy time. Learn a few polite, universal phases to disengage from a situation. By practicing a few verbal time-buying, distancing tactics in advance, you may be able to exit quickly, easily, and smoothly. My favorite is a simple but firm "Not today, thank you," accompanied by whatever physical action is appropriate. Turning and walking away if in person, or hanging up without waiting for acknowledgement if on the phone.

- Adopt a "prove it" attitude. It is only smart to demand objective, impartial proof. A polite but skeptical attitude makes a good companion in life.

I had two major problems with this book. One is that its definition of gullibility is so broad that it includes plain stupidity and unwitting ignorance. The book's analyses also lack subtlety. When US Senators gave George W. Bush broad powers to go to war against Iraq in 2003 -- based on incorrect intelligence -- was this gullibility? Could it not have been a reasoned assessment of facts by those who had no opportunity to learn them on their own? Could it not have been due to political positioning by presidential hopefuls who wanted to present themselves as strong and warlike? Could it be that the cognitive powers of the Senators were not what we might wish they were? Author Greenspan also seems to have it in for religious beliefs, writing about them as though they are self-evidently false, and their adherents gullible fools. I don't argue that there is more than a little foolishness in the thinking of many religious people. But it seems utterly facile to suggest that because some or even many religious people are gullible, then the object of religious belief must be non-existent. It's like saying that because so many who bet on horses make a hash of statistics, that probability theory is unreal.

My second major issue the "Annals of Gullibility" is that it is so derivative. Stephen Greenspan basically has read lots of books, and from these he has fashioned his own book on gullibility. This is not the same as a historian who researches primary documents to present a new synthesis of ideas. It is about an author who uncritically (gullibly?) reads a number of secondary and tertiary sources about a field in which he has no firsthand knowledge, then writes a book about them. This is a book that I, a non-academic but a prolific reader, could have written. I would much rather read a book on gullibility by a researcher who had made a career of studying human cognition.

After reading about half of "Annals," I gave up. Too bad. A decent book on gullibility would have been a fascinating and fun read.

You can't pen a book about gullibility by making notes from various books and papers. Gullibility is way beyond the grasp of mere Ph.D folk or college professors. In fact, the author himself, as other reviewers observed, was conned by the King of Con, Bernie Madoff. As I say, gullibility can't be addressed with proficiency by a mere mortal with a Ph.D. Masters of persuasion long ago learned how to make others do what they want. They prey on such things as greed. To wit: Those who were taken by Madoff would never have been taken were it not for their intense greed coupled with gullibility to their peers who they trusted without question and the fact they felt entitled to the exclusivity offered (supposedly) by Madoff.

Having said that, I found this book interesting if for no other reason than to read about the many ways people are so taken in by others. As Barnum said, "There's one born every minute."

I would rather read a book by someone who knows what he's talking about --- say, Madoff.

-- Susanna K. Hutcheson

Rarely can a reader find a book having so much of value to say about a vital topic be, a the same time, such a good read. Full of the most interesting, curious, and edifying facts--as well as the most compelling examples and anecdotes--this amazingly wide-ranging study illuminates its subject way beyond anything done to date. It is to me a consummate example of a work that simultaneously educates and entertains, with scores of fascinating illustrations that demonstrate the regrettable ever-presence of gullibility.

With chapters covering every imaginable aspect of deception and fraud, Greenspan explores his topic as it's revealed in literature, folklore, finance, relationships, religion, war, politics, criminal justice, science,and academia. Reading this book should increase your sophistication about the world we live in at least threefold(!). It will also help to make you more prudent, circumspect, and wary--crucial characteristics if you're going to protect yourself from all the opportunistic "operators" (or predators) who may be lying in wait to take advantage of you. Definitely worth a 5-star rating.

Finally, contrary to what at least one earlier reviewer stated, Greenspan (whether directly or by implication) discusses the many ways an individual can become more resistant to being duped. His last two chapters in particular focus on this all-important issue. In short, this book is as comprehensive as it is a delight to read.

I read this book to satisfy my curiosity after reading the following from a magazine. I just wondered how could the author who was smart enough to write a book like this one yet so foolish to be duped by a Ponzi scheme.

The Gullible Professor (from The Week)
The irony is almost too rich: A psychology professor, about to publish a book about human gullibility, invests a good chunk of his retirement savings with Bernard Madoff and loses it all. That's what happened to Stephen Greenspan, author of Annals of Gullibility: Why We Get Duped and How to Avoid It. Detailing his misadventures in The Wall Street Journal, Greenspan said it started when his sister and some of her friends, all longtime Madoff investors, urged him to get in on a good thing. They "convinced me that I would be foolish not to take advantage of this opportunity," Greenspan writes. He was so eager to believe, that when a financially savvy friend warned him against the investment, Greenspan dismissed the warning as "knee-jerk cynicism." Only self-deception, Greenspan says, can account for the foolish choices made by otherwise intelligent people. "They had too good a thing going," Greenspan says,"to entertain the idea that it might all be about to crumble." And as long as humans remain prey to self-deception, Ponzi schemes will continue to succeed-until they collapse.

I have been taken for a LOT of money because I am a trusting person, I cannot say "no" two of the author's points, and I have connected with people from the internet (this can be a personal disaster--way worse than Madoff--fortunately I think I could ferret out that kind of dishonest in
real life--but the internet just makes lying so, so easy..do not ask me why I can never learn..very embarrassed about it.
Ask me my story which I am too embarrassed to tell here.
Alex Maas
a.maas@cox.net
Dolphin's Treasure Trove on Amazon.

Hmmm . . . the guy who purports to be able to tell us how to avoid getting duped admits in a January '09 Wall Street Journal article that he "lost a good chunk" of his retirement savings in the Bernie Madoff scam.