In her acclaimed bestselling book The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It…Every Time, New Yorker staff writer Maria Konnikova reveals the nefarious tricks of the con artist’s trade, showing us how frauds and charlatans manipulate us by playing on our vulnerabilities and what we perceive to be our best qualities. She does so with a sincere empathy for those who have been deceived and an eye toward helping us all recognize our own biases. It is for this timely and indispensable work that Maria Konnikova will be awarded the 2016 Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
“Cons work so widely because, in a sense, we want them to,” writes Konni kova. “We want to believe the tale.” In The Confidence Game, Kon nikova uses exhaustive research and absorbing narratives to lay bare the methods used by con artists to compel us to act against our own interests; in so doing, she reveals how even the smartest—and most skeptical—among us are utterly susceptible to being fooled.