THINKING ABOUT DECEPTION

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” Noel Langley, the Wizard of Oz

Someone called my 90-year-old mother-in-law claiming to be her grandson. He wanted her to wire him some money. The need for senior citizens to protect themselves against scammers is a concern. Can you teach them how to detect deception? I would start by first learning about the latest scientific developments on deception. The latter is the subject of this essay.

Malcolm Gladwell’s recent book, Talking to Strangers, ignited my interest in deception. Gladwell applied Timothy Levine's deception theory to understand some high-profile cases. For example, how can some people like Amanda Knox appear deceitful when they were truthful, and others like Bernie Madoff appear truthful when they were deceitful? Levine discusses his theory in his recent book Duped.