Wall Street Journal explains that anyone can be conned

Sophisticated readers of the Wall Street Journal beware: You can be conned, just like the rest of us.

The following article, by Susan Pinker, appeared in last weekend’s edition:

You can’t be fooled by a con? Don’t count on it, on WSJ.com.

The Journal doesn’t provide articles for free, so I’ll provide a summary of key points:

• 35 million Americans fall for scams each year, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
• One reason we fall for scams is because we are biologically programmed to trust and cooperate.
• Research shows that we can detect a lie only about 50 percent of the time.
• The unconscious mind may be better at detecting lies than rational focus.

So if you’ve been conned or deceived — and if you were involved with a sociopath, you probably were — it doesn’t mean you’re stupid. It means you’re human.

Oh yeah — and a con artist is unlikely to look like the guy in the picture.