- George Santos, the freshman Republican representative from Long Island, lied on his résumé – his educational history was made up, he had no attendance at Horace Mann, Baruch, or NYU, and he had no college degree. He also lied about working for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
- The term “con artist” is used to describe someone who misrepresents something or lies – but for con artists, lying is a way of being, and it reaches past exaggeration or misrepresentation into a prevailing disconnect from reality.
- Con artists tend to exhibit some combination of the so-called dark triad of personality traits – psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. Narcissism is the trait that exemplifies the psychology of the con, and explains the hubris behind a pyramid of lies as high as Santos’s.
- Narcissism breeds a self-reinforcing cycle – the more a person misrepresents themselves and cons others for their own gain, the more entitled they feel to keep going.
- Con artists know how to pick the right victims and the right venue – and then how to sell their story most effectively. Santos chose well – politics is an area where shades of gray are the norm, and he ran uncontested in a district with little competition.
- We tend to trust people who appear and act similarly to us – Santos claimed to be Jewish when he ran against Jewish opponents, and used emotion to get people to put their trust in him.
Published February 25, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Maria Konnikova’s original post What Psychology Can Teach Us About George Santos
