Inventing Anna and The Tinder Swindler: Ask a behavioural expert anything

Social psychologist Professor Vanessa Bohns says scammers like Anna Delvey and the Tinder Swindler exploit a core feature of human nature

(Netflix / Getty via AFP Images)

A social psychologist who said she doesn’t find the stories of Anna Sorokin and Simon Leviev that surprising at all will be answering Independent reader questions at an ‘Ask Me Anything’ event.

Vanessa Bohns, associate professor of Organisational Behavior at Cornell University, has written a book about our surprising power of persuasion and believes the scammers featured in Netflix hits Inventing Anna and The Tinder Swindler exploit a core feature of human nature.

“I view the stories about Sorokin and Leviev as examples of bad actors exploiting the social processes people rely on every day for efficient and effective human communication and cooperation,” she wrote in an essay for The Conversation.

“Despite the belief that people are skeptics by nature, primed to shout ‘gotcha!’ at any mistake or faux pas, this simply isn’t the case. Research shows that people tend to default to trusting others over distrusting them, believing them over doubting them and going along with someone’s self-presentation rather than embarrassing them by calling them out.

“There’s something deeply human about this impulse. Humans are social creatures, and trusting one another is baked into our DNA. As psychologist David Dunning and his colleagues have pointed out, without trust it is hard to imagine endeavors like Airbnb, car shares or a working democracy having any success.”

Professor Bohns, author of You Have More Influence Than You Think, an original investigation of our hidden potential to persuade, and how to wield it wisely, will be online from 3pm to 4pm GMT (10am to 11am EST) on 25 February. You might want to ask more about the true stories behind the Netflix shows or more widely about human behaviour and scams.

Register to submit your question in the comments box under this article. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments section to leave your question.

Then join us live on this page from 3pm as Professor Bohns tackles as many questions as she can.