Maria Konnikova, author of The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It … Every Time, appeared on March 11 as an interview guest on “Real Time With Bill Maher.” Konnikova was born in Moscow in 1984, and her parents moved to Massachusetts in 1988. A contributing writer to The New Yorker, Konnikova’s first book, the 2013 Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, was a New York Times bestseller. She earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University, was a recipient of the 2015 Harvard Medical School Media Fellowship, and is a Schachter Writing Fellow at Columbia University’s Motivation Science Center. Also a former producer of Charlie Rose’s PBS show, Maria Konnikova is clearly a force with which to be reckoned.
Maher began his interview of Konnikova by asking her what she thought when she saw Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday news conference on March 8, which featured a table full of Trump-named products. “To me,” Maher said, “that … screamed confidence man.”
“You know, I saw him and I thought, ‘I’m a psychic,” Konnikova replied. “Because I clearly predicted that this was going to happen. I mean, the moment that they analyzed what his products actually were, they found out that they weren’t his products (Trump’s products in name only, in other words). He was blatantly lying. The hallmark of a psychopath, but also the hallmark of a con artist, is someone who deceives you for their own ends. So they’re trying to convince you to support them, to vote for them, in this particular case, and they’re doing it by tactics that aren’t actually real.”
Maher then asked a fascinating question about the possible subliminal advertising on display in Trump’s presentation. “(Trump was) standing there in front of a table of steak. Now, I don’t eat steak, but most people love steak. I thought this was like, subliminal advertising kind of stuff. Like, people looking at that and going ‘Trump. … steak,’ Maher effecting a Homer Simpson-like voice manner. ‘If I vote Trump, I’ll eat steak.’ I mean, they look juicy, you know, steaks look good, people are like, mmm.” (Maher makes a popping sound with his lips.)
“You know what,” Konnikova answered, “Think of the voters he’s trying to appeal to. So he’s actually going for that common—“
“People who would like to eat steak but can’t afford it,” Maher interjected.
“People who want to eat steak,” Konnikova echoed. “’Let them eat steak.’”
“We see him trying to get the popular vote,” Konnikova continued. “It’s the same appeal that he makes all the time. That he’s honest, that he’s a man of the people, he’s telling everyone exactly what they want to hear. And he doesn’t actually say anything. So that’s what confidence artists do.”
“He’s a con man but he is a good one,” Maher interjected.
“He’s a very good con man,” Konnikova seconded. “That’s why they’re called con artists.”
“Right,” Maher responded, “The Art of the Deal,” a reference to the title of Trump’s 1987 bestselling book.
“You make the point, “ Maher then said. “You know, everyone is saying, ‘Donald Trump has hijacked the party,’ but a con man doesn’t take anything from a person—you give it to him, willingly.”
“Absolutely, yes,” Konnikova confirmed. “We give them our confidence.”
Konnikova then told the story that is the origin for the phrase “confidence game.” She said a man once stole watches, “but he never actually stole them. He went up to people on the streets, and said, ‘Have you confidence in me to lend me your watch until tomorrow,’ and people gave them his watch. They gave him their confidence, and that is exactly what Trump is doing to the party. He isn’t asking anyone for anything, people are willingly giving their trust—“
Maher then raised more evidence of the con job Donald Trump has been pulling on the American people since well before he kicked off his campaign in June 2015 for the Republican Party presidential nomination.
“The more I hear about this Trump University,” Maher said, “the more it sounds like Scientology. People paying great sums of money to find out a secret that isn’t really a secret.”
“And people being coerced to keep giving good ratings (to Trump University),” Konnikova continued. “We have Scientology, where you also have the same coercive tactics, where people basically get brainwashed into saying that Scientology is wonderful—(a la) Trump University’s 98 percent approval ratings. … They (Trump University graduates) have people watching them and calling them. We’ve read stories of people who say they’ve been called every single day to change their rating, and finally they say, ‘Fine, I’ll change my rating to 100 percent.’”
“You called him a psychopath,” Maher then asked, referring to the opening of the interview. “What is a psychopath? We all throw that term around. I’d be hard pressed to find it right now. What is a psychopath?”
Before Konnikova could answer, Maher referred to a checklist for narcissism that Konnikova might have published in The Confidence Game. After asking her if the characteristics for a psychopath were similar to those for a narcissist (Konnikova said that there is “a lot of overlap”), Maher began to read the characteristics of a narcissist personality type: “Exaggerated sense of self importance. … Need for excessive admiration. … Sense of entitlement. … Lacking empathy. … Believing others to be envious of him. … Arrogant, haughty, contemptuous behavior or attitude.”
Does that sound like anybody we know?
Konnikova followed up by saying the characteristics of lacking empathy and the arrogance of putting down other people, are also characteristics of the psychopathic personality.
“He does this very funny thing,” Konnikova said. “To his voters, he says very wonderful things to their face. But then, behind their back, he says terrible things about the same groups— ... he makes the same statement, but in opposite ways, depending on who he’s talking to. So you end up seeing these two sides of him, where the truth is a fungible thing. … (T)here’s no such thing as absolute truth, there’s just what’s true in the moment to him.”
“That’s both a narcissist and a psychopath,” Konnikova concluded. “Those are two of the dark triad of (personality) traits. The third is Machiavellianism.”
The irrepressible Maher ended the segment by stating his theory that Trump’s actions, including the infamous case of his defending his penis size at a presidential debate, indicates a man with a micropenis.
“I’m sure Dr. Freud would have something to say about that,” Konnikova responded gracefully. “I’m sure there is a Napoleonic complex prevalent (in Trump).”
“Real Time” panelist Bill (“Senator McCain, may I introduce you to Governor Sarah Palin”) Kristol, editor of the august conservative Weekly Standard, then piped up and said that he published an editorial approximately two months ago about Trump called “The Confidence Man.” “He’s a very skillful demagogue, and he’s dangerous for that reason, obviously.”
Donald Trump: Con artist, narcissist, psychopath.
Heaven help us.