Scams

"Every year, thousands of people fall prey to some from of a scam or fraud. The question is, why are we such easy targets? It's because the gateway to money isn't through your wallet, it's through your brain. But here's a guy you can trust, our host, Jason Silva. Did you know if you say "gullible" slowly it sounds like the word "orange"? Go ahead, try it for yourself. Hopefully you didn't just fall for that, and if you did, you're far from alone. That's because your brain's default setting is to take things at face value and believe what people tell you. Your brain may like to think it knows when it's being tricked, but it turns out you might just be more gullible than you think."

## Games

### Game #1: Honest Con Man

Eric Leclerc tries to take $10 from somebody with a magic trick(He gave it back).

Result: The bill is gone, and then in the volunteer's pocket.

How: After Eric stashed the pen behind his ear, you noticed the bill was gone, but when the pen is revealed, he has all the time in the world to stash the money in the volunteer's pocket. While your brain is physically misdirected, there are other ways of being fooled.

### Game #2: Fact or Fiction

Answer questions about things, are they fact or fiction?

Result: You probably answered false to most of these questions. And this is a quiz about being gullible. And no wants to be seen as gullible. For 2 out of 3: They are false. But as for the other, 10,000 people are injured in escalators every year.

So: Did you believe these, even if just for a second?

Why: Your prefrontal cortex helps decide if a statement is true or false. Recent research suggests that in order for your brain to make sense of a new idea, it will initially believe it. But then, your brain checks if something is true to you.

### Game #3: Magma Hot New Product

Will some random person be able to convince random passers-by to buy a fake product?

Result: Yes! After demonstrating gravity with and without the magma stones and appealing to their interests, he was able to convince people to buy the stones despite no concrete evidence.

How and Why: In the balance test, he pushed in when the stones were in their hands, making it hard to tip them over. But other tricks were used too. By dressing nicely, he seems knowledgeable. He takes advantage of expert bias and people trust him because they believe he's an expert. Also, using artificial scarcity, customers buy if they'll miss out on a big deal.

### Game #4: Three's the Ace

Keep track of an ace in between two kings after shuffling cards around. Later rounds will have some bets.

Result: The first two rounds, you do pretty well. But after your confidence goes up, you lose when betting big.

Why: The reason scammers let you win the first round or two of a game is because it likes positive reinforcement. Once your brain game associates a game with pleasure, it wants more.

### Game #5: The Pigeon Drop

Performing a real scam, will it work? The first man will hook in a passer-by, the second man will try and force the pigeon to give up money willingly. After the second man sees some money on the ground, and no luck finding the original owner, they try and split the money and appeal to the greed of the passer-by and try to make him willingly take some of the money.

Result: After giving the passer-by the envelope full of money, the second man is able to get the first man and the passer-by to give up some money as well so the second man can run and try and get help. But after the passer-by and the first man give up their money, the first two men leave after a few minutes. After the first man scrams, the passer-by checks his envelope for money. But as he'll find out, he's been conned!

Why: It overwhelms your brain from every angle because of the fact that there's a promise of a reward, causing dopamine and a social connection to form pleasure and rewards. Our brains are designed to form relationships with others, which motivates you to trust. After letting our pigeons in on the scam, the volunteers explained their reasoning. But not everyone fell for it.

## List of Experts

* Eric Leclerc(Illusionist)
* Jim Coan