Podcasts and Interviews
Caleb Newquist and Greg Kyte interviewed Dan and Chris about Nobody's Fool.
Paul Brandus interviewed Dan and Chris about Nobody's Fool.
Ricardo Lopes interviewed Dan about Nobody's Fool.
Kelly Paxton interviewed Dan and Chris about Nobody's Fool.
Wanda Wallace interviewed Dan and Chris about Nobody's Fool.
Jennifer Ouellette interviewed Dan and Chris about Nobody's Fool for Ars Technica."
Bob Dignan and Emelie Mies interviewed Dan about Nobody's Fool and its relevance to students and faculty for this podcast of the University of Illinois Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.
Mark Raffan interviewed Chris about Nobody's Fool.
Clint Murphy interviewed Chris about Nobody's Fool.
Stephan Lea interviewed interviewed Dan and Chris about Nobody's Fool for the British Psychological Society's magazine, The Psychologist."
Brian Perkins interviewed Dan and Chris about Nobody's Fool.
Kim Schmidt interviewed Dan and wrote this story about Nobody's Fool for the fall edition of this University of Illinois magazine."
Shankar Vedantam interviewed Dan: "We like to think that con artists only prey upon the weak, or gullible. But psychologist Dan Simons says all of us can fall victim to scams, because the best scammers know how to take advantage of our biases and blindspots."
Gayle Allen interviewed Dan: "As humans, we have certain default settings that help us navigate the world. Yet those same default settings make us vulnerable to fraud and deception."
(Re-airing of July 20 interview) Brian Mackey interviewed Dan for this Illinois Public Media radio program (on station WILL): "The authors of ‘Nobody’s Fool,’ explores the human psychology that makes us vulnerable to being tricked into scams, and provide practical tips to help us stay in check to avoid these costly and emotional traps."
Hilary Harper interviewed Chris for this live program on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "... ways fraudsters exploit our cognitive habits to deceive us, and what we can do to protect ourselves."
Dan Bova and Jon Small interviewed Chris: "...fraudsters are experts at finding weaknesses and exploiting them. He provides a checklist of red flags to help you decipher phony financial opportunities from real ones."
David Eagleman interviewed Dan and Chris: "Why are we humans so easily deceived? What are the tricks of the trade, and how can we train ourselves to be more aware of them?"
Joe Hirsch interviewed Dan and Chris: "Even the best of us can fall for frauds - but after listening to Dan and Christopher, you'll be prepared to fight back."
Andy Luttrell interviewed Dan and Chris: "We talk about how Dan and Chris became partners in science and what they've learned about the psychology of attention and reasoning."
Guy Spier interviewed Dan and Chris: "They provide insights on how we can arm ourselves against stories that do not reflect reality and how to improve our ability to realize when we are in front of a critical decision."
Chris Parker interviewed Dan and Chris: "Scammers, like magicians, use distractions and illusions to keep you from realizing what is really going on. They may choose to have you focus on something that is urgent hoping that you’ll make mistakes that you normally wouldn’t".
Jesse Mulligan interviewed Dan: They talked about truth bias, habits, hooks, and why we are all vulnerable to scams.
Adam Levin and crew interviewed Dan: "When it comes to scams, we usually focus on the How rather than the Why. This week, we spoke to psychologist Dan Simons, co-author of Nobody’s Fool to find out why we’re all much easier marks than we like to think."
Michael Covel interviewed Chris: They discussed "Cognitive biases and their impact on perception and deception — Stepping back from heated debates Scams, frauds, and deceptions — Selective data analysis and confirmation bias Vaccines and politics — Thinking critically and seeking truth in divisive topics."
David Beckemeyer interviewed Chris: "They discuss the cognitive habits that make us susceptible to scams and outrage, and how to avoid falling for misinformation and manipulation. They explore the concept of focus and what's missing, the limitations of memory, the power of precision and repetition, and the truth bias that influences our beliefs."
Krys Boyd interviewed Dan: "Hindsight is 20/20 after falling for a scam; the trick is avoiding one in the first place. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the many ways we get taken for a ride and the faulty thinking that got us there so we can be aware next time."
Larry Potash and Robin Baumgarten interviewed Dan for this short live television segment on why we get conned. We touched on red flags, whether only gullible people fall for scams, a couple of famous scams.
Dora Koretić interviewed Chris for this story about how to avoid falling for scams (text is in Croatian and paywalled)
Ryan Moyer interviewed Dan and Chris: "How easy it is to be fooled by online information, why doomsday cult members don't abandon their beliefs when their predictions fail, why being objective may be harder than we think, why Bernie Madoff was so successful at conning his victims, and how you can adjust your thinking to avoid being deceived."
Sucheta Kamath interviewed Dan and Chris: "Focus, critical thinking, discernment and questioning ourselves with criticality are some of the effective ways of managing our truth bias and activating our executive function to protect our future-selves."
Michael Shermer interviewed Chris: Topics included "How rational/irrational are we? —Truth Default Theory —deception, self-deception, deception detection —NXIVM, Tinder Swindler, Jonestown, Koresh, Madoff, Holmes —How to protect yourself."
Mike Carruthers interviewed Dan (the interview runs from timestamp 5:35 to 28:35 of the episode): "While most of us like to think we are too smart to fall for scams, it’s just not true. Some of the smartest people have fallen victim to some very clever scams – and you might too!"
Christer Sturmark interviewed Chris for this Swedish podcast (in English): "How is society at large affected when we think we know more than we do? And how can one avoid being either overly skeptical or completely gullible?"
Indre Viskontas interviewed Dan and Chris for an episode titled, "How to stop your brain from falling for lies."
Dan Quintana and James Heathers interviewed Dan and Chris: "We chat ... about the science of cons and how we can we can avoid being taken in. We also cover the fate of the gorilla suit from the 'invisible gorilla' study, why scientists are especially prone to being fooled, plus more!"
In this virtual "book" event, Chris and Dan discussed deception and fraud with Diana Henriques who literally wrote the book on Bernie Madoff. A recording of our conversation is available on YouTube."
Brian Mackey interviewed Dan for this Illinois Public Media radio program (on station WILL): "The authors of ‘Nobody’s Fool,’ explores the human psychology that makes us vulnerable to being tricked into scams, and provide practical tips to help us stay in check to avoid these costly and emotional traps."
Kim Mills interviewed Dan and Chris: We "talk about the cognitive habits that put us at risk of believing lies; famous frauds and cons from the worlds of business, science, and competitive chess; and what you can do to protect yourself, and your wallet, by spotting scammers before it’s too late."
Jonathan Wai interviewed us by email for this post entitled, "Is Getting Through Life Increasingly About Not Getting Scammed? The new book Nobody’s Fool can teach you how to not get scammed"
Tim Houlihan and Kurt Nelson talked with Dan and Chris: "It's really difficult to know who to believe. But look for the people who can admit when they're wrong. Who can make mistakes and own it. Who can change their opinions. They're the ones to trust. Listen for more nuggets of wisdom about deception and fraud ... in one of the best ever episodes of Behavioral Grooves Podcast ever! (trust us 😉)."
NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer talks with Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris about their new book, Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do about It.
Our podcast interview for Psychologists Off The Clock (with Debbie Sorenson) was New Books Network Book of the Day in Psychology.
Richard Saunders interviewed Dan for the Skeptic Zone podcast, starting about 3 minutes into the show. Richard is someone who regularly investigates psychic claims and he was one of the leads of the terrific "Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project" that we discuss in Nobody's Fool.
Brian Brushwood, Justin Robert Young, Andrew Mayne, and Bryce Castillo chatted with Dan for this live stream/podcast of Weird Things. The link goes to the podcast version. Topics included "his viral Invisible Gorilla experiment, errors and data fraud in scientific studies, and his new book “Nobody’s Fool". The line between misinformation and being incorrect."
Greg LaBlanc interviewed Dan. "Daniel and Greg discuss how our limited attention resources result in a focus on specific tasks and potential neglect of other crucial elements, and how personally appealing information can easily lead us down the wrong path. They also talk about the need to parse the world more finely without succumbing to wholesale distrust by evaluating our assumptions and posing challenging questions."
Nick Johnson interviewed Dan and Chris: "If I had an origin story as a magician/con artist/science communicator it would be me, in the early 2000s, hunching over my computer trying to count how many times a basketball is being thrown while completely missing the full-size gorilla walking right through the middle of the shot. On this episode of the podcast, we talk about the book, the gorilla, and the best ways to avoid being taken for a ride."
Zach Rhoads interviewed Chris: "In all the movies and podcasts and articles and so on about scams, they talk about what the con artists did, how they were caught, how the victims felt about it, and what the victims did about it. But none of them really explain why people keep falling for these scams."
Rob Breakenridge interviewed Dan on QR Calgary Radio (107FM | 770AM)
Ludmila Nunes interviewed Dan and Chris: "How can our habits of thinking make us vulnerable to deception? What characteristics of information make it more likely to manipulate us? And how can we spot deception before it’s too late? In this episode of Under the Cortex, Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris join APS’s Ludmila Nunes to answer these questions and more." The link has a full transcript as well as an audio link.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviewed Dan and Chris: "In this episode I talk to Daniel and Christopher about scams and how NOT to get scammed! With enough information and persuasion, anybody can fall for a scheme. According to Daniel and Christopher, certain cognitive biases can make us vulnerable to deception. To help us outsmart con artists, they elaborate the different types of scams and how they work, all the while giving us tools to navigate shady situations."
David DeLallo interviewed us by email for this story on scams and generative AI, "Fool me not, generative AI"
Rob Britt interviewed us by email for this story on scams entitled, "Duped: Why We Fall for Increasingly Scary Phone Scams"
Guy Kawasaki interviewed Dan: "This book caused me to have a brief existential crisis. Believe me, as we head into the elections of 2024, knowing how not to get taken in could save democracy." You can also listen to a short extract from our discussion about why business books often neglect crucial information.
Debbie Sorensen interviewed Dan and Chris: "Christopher and Daniel unveil the cognitive biases that plague us all while offering practical ways to safeguard ourselves from being duped. Drawing upon real-life situations, they come equipped with an arsenal of tactics that can be incorporated into your daily life and that won’t breed paranoia or leave you in a perpetual state of vigilance—quite the opposite! Their goal is to provide you with the knowledge to navigate life confidently, cautiously, and securely."
Joe Saul-Sehy and the Stacking Benjamins crew interviewed Dan and Chris: "Is it really human nature to believe what we’re told at first pass, but then start to doubt after the conversation ends? Should we be more doubtful from the get-go? Today we welcome to the basement two men who want to share how to avoid getting sucked into false promises, hoodwinked by snake oil salesmen, and bamboozled by smooth-talking neighbors who have a sweet El Camino: Doctors Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris."
David McRaney interviewed Dan and Chris: "In an era in which we have more information available to us than ever before, when claims of “fake news” might themselves be, in fact, fake news, Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, authors of The Invisible Gorilla, are back to offer us a vital tool to not only inoculate ourselves against getting infected by misinformation but prevent us from spreading it to others, a new book titled Nobody’s Fool." Here's a short video preview.
The Art of Charm guys interviewed Chris:
Scammers and con men are everywhere these days, but how can you recognize when you’re being scammed, what behaviors or habits of your own should be aware of that tip you off as a potential victim, and what tactics do scammers, businesses, and governments use on us to get what they want?"" Here's a short video preview.
Ben Johnson interviewed Dan and Chris: "In our conversation, we talk about the book generally but also try to focus on “chess takeaways,” from the book material, with a particular emphasis on the future of cheating in chess. Dr. Chabris has also been active on the tournament scene since we last spoke, so he shares a few fresh observations about chess improvement."
Jay van Bavel sent us a set of interview questions. This post includes an introduction and our responses.
Our conversation with Mary Beth Williams appears in "Con science: Experts on why we fall for hoaxes and how to outsmart scammers"