One of the things that women really excel at is reading and reacting to subtle cues. We’ve always had to do that because men don’t have to. Maria Konnikova Read Quote
Three-card monte is one of the most persistent and effective cons in history. The games still pop up along city streets. But we tend to dismiss the victims as rubes. Maria Konnikova Read Quote
Stories are one of the most powerful forces of persuasion available to us, especially stories that fit in with our view of what the world should be like. Facts can be contested. Stories are far trickier. I can dismiss someone’s logic, but dismissing how I feel is harder. Maria Konnikova Read Quote
The best confidence artist makes us feel not as if we’re being taken for a ride but as if we are genuinely wonderful human beings who are acting the way wonderful human beings act and getting what we deserve. Maria Konnikova Read Quote
It may be that learning to do creative work of any kind – not just direct imagery exercises – may help combat writer’s block. Maria Konnikova Read Quote
Storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment there is. From campfires and pictograms – the Lascaux cave paintings may be as much as twenty thousand years old – to tribal songs and epic ballads passed down from generation to generation, it is one of the most fundamental ways humans have of making sense of the world. Maria Konnikova Read Quote
The more extreme the story, the more successful it becomes. Emotions on high, empathy engaged, we become primed to help. Maria Konnikova Read Quote
The problems of reporting a bully – or, if you are a bully, of becoming less of one – become much more intractable, because your reputation surrounds you, and behavioral patterns are harder to escape. Maria Konnikova Read Quote
Before the Internet, bullying ended when you withdrew from whatever environment you were in. But now, the bullying dynamic is harder to contain and harder to ignore. Maria Konnikova Read Quote
Many adult bullies hide behind the idea that bullying happens only among children. They conceive of themselves as adults who know better and are offering their hard-earned wisdom to others. The Internet makes that sort of certainty easier to attain: looking at their screens, adult bullies rarely see the impact of their words and actions. Maria Konnikova Read Quote