You see a lot of interesting things working the night shift in a sketchy neighborhood. I constantly saw people making bad decisions: drunk drivers, gang members, unhappy cops, and con men. In fact, I was the victim of a classic con called “The Pigeon Drop.” If we humans have such big brains, how can we get conned?
It seems that reciprocating trust is an element in being conned.
My laboratory studies of college students have shown that two percent of them are “unconditional nonreciprocators.” That’s a mouthful! This means that when they are trusted they don’t return money to person who trusted them (these experiments are described in my post on neuroeconomics). What do we really call these people in my lab? Bastards. Yup, not folks that you would want to have a cup of coffee with. These people are deceptive, don’t stay in relationships long, and enjoy taking advantage of others. Psychologically, they resemble sociopaths. Bastards are dangerous because they have learned how to simulate trustworthiness. My research has demonstrated that they have highly dysregulated THOMASes.
(THOMAS = The Human Oxytocin Mediated Attachment System)
Here’s how a con works, which they also call the Pigeon Drop. Alternately, you can watch the beginning of The Sting, where they call it “The Switch”
Here’s the Three-card-Monte and Matchbox game. I know people who have fallen for this kind of con, and I recall someone trying to hustle me (and some friends) after a pickup basketball game.
You can’t win these games.