Why Everyone Manipulates (Including You)
Mark Manson and co-host Drew Burnie argue that manipulation isn't limited to villains and psychopaths. Everyone does it, mostly in small, practical ways, and usually starts by fooling themselves first.
The gist
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Manson says Hervey Cleckley's 1941 book The Mask of Sanity showed psychopaths blend into everyday life, a point later buried by the serial killer stereotype.
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In Bella DePaulo's lie diaries, college students told about two lies a day and working adults about one, with self-serving lies outnumbering white lies two to one.
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Drew cites von Hippel and Trivers: we deceive ourselves to deceive others better, and in a Lund study about three-quarters missed a secretly switched face card.
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Drew says lie detection is basically a coin flip, around 54 to 55% even for experts, and a TSA program costing roughly $900 million failed.
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Manson cites a 2010 survey finding almost 50% of lies came from 5% of people, and advises avoiding them, trusting others, and watching for chronic victimhood.
Mark, Andrew, Riley and Rich agree on 11 things
See what they all use, in their own words. Paid ads are left out.
See what they all swear by Or pick your own peopleAlso mentioned
11:16
The Mask of Sanity
· "So in 1941 Cleckley took a collection of interviews that he did with these patients and put them together..."
49:19
Infinite Jest
· "There's a fantastic quote from David Foster Wallace in Infinite Jest from around the same time,..."
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