The confidence game

Maria Konnikova, a psychologist by training, applies her expertise in human behavior and cognition to dissect the mechanics of deception in "The Confidence Game." This approach is consistent with her earlier work, "Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes," which also explores cognitive processes and human psychology, albeit from the perspective of deduction and observation.

The book draws extensively on real-world examples of con artists and their schemes, analyzing historical and contemporary cases to illustrate the psychological principles at play. While not a narrative of a single true story, it synthesizes numerous actual events to build its arguments about the nature of confidence tricks.